Starfleet Regulation 28843
by ODST1
Summary: Substances unstable in an oxygen atmosphere must be handled with care.
1. Chapter 1

The darkened observation room was a sterile environment, yet had a warm air to it. Like any room aboard the ship, it was neat, tidy, and appealing to the eye.

It was a keyhole-shaped room. The cylindrical shaped area's walls were entirely opaque, as was a circle embedded in the floor taking up a significant amount of it. The center was mostly filled with consoles and equipment, but there was plenty of standing room. Around the circle were chairs facing the blank walls, and even more consoles. Nothing was active. A ramp lead up and out of the room at the "bottom" of the keyhole.

The door at the top of the ramp hissed open. Light spilled into the darkened chamber for a brief instant, before the room's own illumination activated.

Two figures entered the room, walking toward the center, a man and a woman.

Both wore uniforms that were mostly dark, with the exception of the grey shoulders, worn with an open collar over a mock-turtleneck shirt. The man's mock-turtleneck was red, the woman's teal.

The light revealed the man's face; late 30s, with dark hair that had traces of silver in it. Along his collar were four gold pips. The woman was younger, and clearly not of the same species. Her skin was blue, she had white hair, and a pair of small antenna that twitched back and forth. Along her collar were two gold pips and one black pip.

Both wore the same insignia on the left breast of their outfits; a silver arrowhead-shaped pennant, with a gold vaguely-trapezoid-shaped outline behind it.

The woman held a flat electronic device in her left hand, and was rapidly switching through various menus.

They came to a halt in the center of the room. The man stood straight with hands clasped behind his back, looking down at the floor. The woman touched a control, and the opaque walls and floor shimmered. They became windows, allowing a view into the cargo bay below.

The bay was one of the smaller ones aboard the starship, and had been hastily remodeled to accommodate their new passengers.

There were several communal tables in the middle, and beds pushed up against one side of the hall. On the far side was another table where food could be served, and next to that was a beverage machine.

The chamber was currently occupied by roughly ten strange individuals of various shapes and sizes.

The man stepped around the observation room, looking at each of the people below. It was quite an eerie experience, he could watch them and they didn't even know he was there.

The individuals seemed to have divided themselves up, with one large central group, a duo, and several lone wolves. The large group numbered five who clustered around the beds and talked animatedly to each other. The duo sat as far away from the large group as possible, at a table they'd pushed up against the far wall. Of the two lone wolves, one was busying herself with the beverage machine, and the other was sat right next to the large group on one of the beds, looking for all the world like a pouty child.

Because she was. All of them were.

There were no obvious adults in the entire room. The oldest was eighteen, maybe twenty to mid twenties at the very best, and that was a generous estimate.

The man sighed, "Jesus, they're a bunch of kids..."

"The higher-ups are elsewhere, Captain Hayes," the woman said, "As you should know. they're all older."

"Yeah I know, I just...damn, I didn't expect this. they look so young..."

"Don't let that fool you, sir. Remember on Earth during the 20th and 21st centuries, they made killers out of children younger than this."

The captain shook his head, "I know, Lieutenant Commander. I know. We've got a dark history…"

He peered at the pouting girl, who occasionally glanced over at the main group, tried to add something, but then shrugged and went back to pouting. She was short, dark-haired, and wore long johns and a pair of boots that seemed out of place with the rest of the outfit. The heavy fur coat resting on her lap explained it. Even without the fur she still looked hot, but that didn't look like the only reason she was scowling.

By their estimates, she was nearly twelve. And according to intelligence, she commanded one of the largest empires on her world.

He was supposed to address them at some point. How would he do that?

"So these _are _the system administrators? the current ones?"

"Yes sir, at least as many as we could track down. We're still missing a few, and some we're not even sure if they are administrators. We found many of them with their controllers, but not all. Even worse, some were with their controllers, but had no access to them."

Hayes nodded, and continued studying their guests.

The girl by the beverages was one of the strangest. She definitely wasn't quite human, but she probably had mostly human ancestry. She wore a dark pair of heavy overalls, over which she'd put on a white chestplate that looked like salvaged armor. Her boots and gloves looked like she'd pulled them off an old spacesuit. On her head were a pair of goggles, currently lowered over her eyes to study what looked like a turkey sandwich. She was probably the oldest, one of those people who looked like she could have been anywhere between twenty and twenty-five.

The most unusual aspect about her was her pale pink hair, the length of which could have rivaled Rapunzel. Not only was it long, it was prehensile. It was being used to form a seat for the girl, and a pair of strands held her up in the air.

"She's not dangerous, is she?" Hayes asked, nodding at her, his eyes traveling the length of her hair.

"Not in the way you'd imagine, sir. She's attempted to take security's weapons, and tamper with control panels, but it appears to be out of curiosity instead of attempting to escape. We've had to deactivate all electronic systems inside because of her. That's why they're not using the replicators. Even a food synthesizer was too advanced. They're still trying to figure out what she did to the cards..."

"I was wondering about that."

The lieutenant commander shook her head, "The others are a security issue for sure, though. To make matters worse, two factions obviously seem to have an issue with each other."

She walked over in the direction of the pair among the tables. "These two are by far the most physically dangerous, in possession of natural weapons."

The two below them wore the same uniforms, a dark red outfit with little insignia beyond from small badges over the left breast.

Hayes frowned at the symbol.

Aside from that, and the fact that both were humanoid, the two were very dissimilar. One was larger and bulkier than the other-in fact she was larger than most of the rest of the children. She had a humanoid face, torso and legs, but her lower arms were the pincers of a scorpion, and a tail with a stinger twitched behind her every once in a while. Most of her torso was armor-plated like the carapace of scorpion.

Her face was almost entirely human, she even had a head of white hair. She was quite intimidating but for her expression. She had quite a warm face, just looking at her made the officer want to smile. She had taken a tray out from the food table and a mountain of just about everything on the menu was there. She seemed happy as could be.

Hayes had no idea what species she was. If he had to hazard a guess, he'd say she or her family were likely either hybrids, or were genetically modified, with a base humanoid structure. Her ears, nose and brow ridge certainly spoke towards homo sapiens, as well as her ability to make complex sounds.

Her companion was small and lean. She wore no shoes, a full body outfit with no sleeves, and a red headband over her face that kept her hair back. She was like a cat. She had a mane like a lion, claws extended from her feet and hands, fangs were concealed behind her scowling face, and she had a pair of mismatched eyes, one blue, and one yellow.

She was either a Kzin or a Caitian. The captain assumed the latter, either that or she had been subject to genetic modification as well. She had the prominent nose and flat brow ridge of a human being, although her ears and teeth were feline.

The girl looked only about sixteen or eighteen, and like she could melt a phaser with the power of her sour expression.

Hayes furrowed his brow, and glanced at the lieutenant commander, "Am I seeing things, or does it look like they've kept the uniform after all these years? Are they officers?"

"It is unclear if the uniforms are related, but they are certainly officers."

He looked back, and saw the Caitian's eyes were glancing about the room. Her friend was speaking through a mouthful of food.

Hayes knew it was rude, but… "Can we hear what they're saying?"

"Do you want the room audio, or just those two?"

"Those two, lieutenant commander."

The officer selected an option on her PADD, and a moment later, the larger girl's voice bubbly voice filtered into the observation room. It was initially in a foreign tongue, but the lieutenant commander quickly modified settings and it shifted into something they could understand.

"...captive, they sure know how to treat prisoners!" the larger girl spoke mid sentence, "I don't even know what half this stuff is!"

The Caitian's claws dug into the table. She furrowed her brow, and started searching the ceiling.

"They even have fish…" The large girl said enticingly to her friend, "At least I think it's a fish. Maybe it's some kind of sea mammal?"

The Caitian did not pay attention, she cocked her head, her ears twitching as she moved them about.

"What's she doing?" The captain asked.

"Ah, I forgot to mention. I think…"

The cat-like being slowly tilted her head upward, looking straight at the observation bay.

Right at Captain Hayes.

The tiniest smirk appeared on her face.

"The windows are working properly, right?"

"Yes sir. I forgot to mention. Caitians can hear certain things other beings can't, especially on a starship."

"I know that! But not normally to this level!"

"She seems to have had some intense training in her life, but I'm also guessing she's unique. She is among these ranks for a reason."

The captain shivered a little, "I can see why."

The lieutenant commander looked down at her computer. "We haven't had the chance to examine any of them beyond external scanning, but if she isn't Caitian, there's always the possibility she's been modified-maybe she has enhanced hearing."

Hayes nodded absently, and stepped off into the direction of the other group.

The leadership role clearly went to the two girls the others were all looking at.

One was fairly tall, especially compared to her peers. She was well-built, with dark blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. To the captain's confusion, she wore a uniform with similar patterns to the first group, but minus the insignia. She had on boots, long utility pants, and a red vest over a white turtleneck.

Her friend dressed a bit oddly, but really most of them did.

The second possible-leader was short and a little pudgy, as if she hadn't shed all of her baby fat yet. Suppressing a wince, the captain was struck again with just how young these people were. The shorter girl had pink and violet hair that shimmered where the light hit it, like an insect carapace. She wore a purple leotard, with boots, fingerless gloves, and a cape that looked like folded dragonfly wings.

The pair were speaking to the others animatedly, but quietly, occasionally glancing over at the duo on the other side of the room.

The lieutenant commander touched a control, and the blonde girl's voice erupted from the speakers, "...don't need their help!"

"But Adora," said one of the others, a boy with short hair and a midriff-baring shirt. The captain had to question the practicality of that choice. "we don't have any weapons! Thanks to Entrapta, we don't even have any sharp silverware! We can't even sharpen the spoons, it's some weird soft material. I can work wonders, but it's hard to stop lasers with non-carbonated water!"

"Wait, so they forgot Starfleet, Eternia, the _Federation_, yet they kept soda?" Hayes muttered.

"Carbonation doesn't require that much technology, sir," said the lieutenant commander, "even so, they are full of anachronisms. That's typically what happens on Leibowitz-type planets."

The tall girl replied, "We've got bare hands, and there's seven of us - five if we don't count Entrapta or Frosta. We've been in worse spots!"

The others looked at her with bemused expressions.

"I mean...not this specific scenario, but.."

"I don't think it matters who's on who's side," the boy said, "These guys aren't anyone's friends. We could team up until we escape, then go our separate ways."

"We can't trust them! They're Horde soldiers!" the violet-haired girl spoke up. "The minute we get free, or even find a way to defend ourselves, they'll turn on us!" she punched a fist into the palm of her hand for emphasis. One of the other girls, tall, with pale blonde hair and a pink dress, flinched.

"I can't speak for everyone, but wouldn't we do the same thing?" the boy asked.

"Of course not, Bow," the tall girl said, "but...It may not be they won't trust _us_, they may not trust _me_."

"Hrm." Hayes said, "So that's why she wears their uniform."

"Affirmative, sir," the lieutenant commander said, "According to intel, she was an officer in the Horde military before she defected to this...Rebellion."

The children had gone silent after the tall girl had spoken.

The shorter girl in purple had a hand on her chin, "Hm...well, we need other options anyway, just in case." She didn't seem too torn up about the plan not working.

"Has anyone got _any_ power left?" she asked, "_Anything _at all?"

"Not since you last asked." the girl in pink replied, wringing her hands, "Where on earth could we be where I can't reach any plants, any soil?" she tugged at her hair fitfully. "There's no flowers _anywhere_!"

"I can move a few glasses of water, or whatever," the fifth individual in the group spoke up, "But that's about it." As she spoke, the girl tossed her head of blue hair, and tugged at her collar. She wore a sort of wetsuit, minus sleeves and adorned with gold embroidery. "Don't these people have any plumbing or something?" she muttered, "Seriously, even in the Fright Zone I could pick up _some_ stuff."

"The translator's working properly, right?" Hayes asked with a snort, "Was that seriously the name?"

"Nazi Germany wore skulls on their uniforms, sir. Not everyone knows they're working for the bad guys."

"Point taken."

"And I'm just me without my sword," the tall girl said.

The short girl looked at her hand, that glittered briefly as she turned it over. "I can still teleport, but I can't go further than this room for some reason. It's not like when I lost my powers, or when I'm out of juice, there's no pain or anything, I just..._can't_."

For emphasis, she snapped her fingers, and disappeared with a shimmer. She appeared near the table of food, then disappeared again. She was back where she started.

"A biological transporter does seem useful," Hayes said, entirely nonplussed by the girl's abilities, "But you get a host of other problems. What if they get sick or injured? And heck, you simply can't match the precision of a computer without a neural implant. You might end up telefragged."

"She's one of only a handful that can still do that, sir," said the lieutenant commander, "Perhaps that's what happened to the rest of the test subjects."

Hayes grimaced, "I've ordered deep scans for unusual biological anomalies on, and _inside_ the planet's surface. Starfleet Intelligence isn't being very forthcoming with any data on this part of the project, as usual. It'll be awhile before we can find everything."

He sighed, "well, guess we had better address them before they try to escape again. How're those guards doing?"

"Recovering. One's got a concussion, the other a broken wrist. Those 'kids' are pretty tough."

They started walking toward the door, deactivating the windows and polarizing them again.

"...Either that or Starfleet needs to hurry those Hazard Team regulations along, or just accept Marines aboard again." Hayes grumbled, not blaming his security guards for their lack of training.

"Sorry, sir, but you know how it's been. Starfleet has never forgiven them for The Expanse."

"I swear, your ancestors hijack one ship and suddenly your whole service is untrustworthy…that wasn't even us, that was the MACOs!"

"You're not the only one with that sort of issue, sir."

The door hissed open, and Hayes looked at her, "Why, Lieutenant Commander Reed, whoever could you mean?"

"With all due respect, sir, I sincerely hope your wit doesn't get us killed by a bunch of high schoolers."

They proceeded to the nearest turbolift and moved one level down. A security team was arranged near the large cargo bay door. A significant amount of cargo still remained in the corridor, awaiting transfer to other areas.

Three guards were playing fizbin on a few crates, a fourth was reading a PADD, and two more were standing near the door, their phaser rifles hanging on slings by their sides.

The guards all stood to attention, with the exception of those watching the door.

Hayes straightened his uniform, and tugged at his collar, "Reed...are you _sure _there's no one else who can do this?"

Lieutenant Commander Paraas Zh'Reed looked at him with surprise, "Sir? Surely it can't be any worse than the Jem'Hadar!"

"Even the Jem'Hadar were adults. The major faction leaders are adults. Shouldn't we probably requisition a counselor of some kind or something for this? God, I bet Picard doesn't have to deal with this kind of problem."

"Sir, these people _are_ considered adults in their culture. They probably won't accept anyone else but an officer." Reed pointed out.

"Think they would accept me being sick?"

"Captain…"

Hayes grinned, somewhat gritted, "alright, alright…"

At his nod, one security officer hit the keypad, and opened the large blast door. As the hatch opened, the guards fell into a ready position, and watched the people inside.

The kids had started scrambling around the moment the compartment opened. They had arranged themselves standing in cover. Not quite behind it, but not out of it either. They clearly had military training, and had recognized any attack on their part would be dangerous.

They seemed confused by the crew's appearance, but that didn't seem to change anything in their behavior.

Two guards stepped inside, before allowing the skipper and the lieutenant commander inside. The other three guards remained outside, and shut the door.

Hayes took a breath, and stepped forward. Just ahead enough to set him apart from the others, but far back enough to get into cover quickly. He'd been thinking about what he should tell them, but still didn't quite know what to say.

The tall blonde girl stepped forward as well, making a similar pattern of movement.

She sized him up, the well-fed, well-dressed man in front of her. She was relatively nourished, but there were definitely nutritional differences.

He was old enough to be her father. Why was she in this role? She should have been in school, not facing down Starfleet officers.

Her face was filled with determination and defiance. She looked into his eyes without fear.

"I am Adora, wielder of the sword of Princess She-ra. I am part of the Princess Alliance of the Rebellion against the Horde. Who are you? Why are you keeping us here?" She spoke firmly. There was not a tremor in her voice.

Hayes suppressed a sigh, "I am Captain Archer Hayes, commander of the Federation Starship _Belleau Wood_. I represent Starfleet, the exploratory and defense service of the United Federation of Planets, an interstellar alliance devoted to peace, mutual cooperation, and friendship. I realize that statement might seem ironic at the moment, but believe me, keeping you here is in your best interest."

"How?" the girl, or Adora, asked, "seems to me like we're in a gilded cage."

"Did he say 'starship'?" Hayes heard the girl in the dress whisper to the one in the wet suit.

The other girl pursed her lips and shrugged. "I dunno," she folded her arms and glared at the captain.

"Where are we?" The short pudgy girl asked, moving to stand beside Adora, "I'm Princess Glimmer of Bright Moon. Could you please answer our questions? Who are you, really? What's this Federation? What's a starship? Why have you kidnapped us?!"

Hayes looked up at the lights, "Oh boy…"

"Sir...?" Lieutenant Commander Reed asked, stepping forward, but Hayes waved her off.

"Just give me a second, lieutenant commander…"

He looked back to see the two girls staring at the lieutenant commander in shock. They backed away slowly, as Reed looked back in confusion. The others further back dug in deeper into cover.

"Is something the matter?" She asked, finally.

The girls looked at each other, then back, "you speak our language?" Glimmer asked.

"I speak several languages. However, I do not speak yours. I am currently using this," she gestured to her combadge, "what's called a 'universal translator', to communicate with you."

"Lieutenant commander…" Hayes muttered nervously.

"Captain, at this point, what have we got to lose?"

"What exactly are you?" Glimmer asked, "I've never seen something...some_one_ like you before."

"I am an Andorian. "

The guards suddenly moved their aim as another individual approached. The girl, or woman, with the prehensile hair was approaching. She walked right up to the captain, peering intently at his uniform.

She reached out and poked his chest.

The guards stepped forward, but Hayes held out a hand, "Hold…"

"Some sort of non-organic fabrics...interesting! And fully intact, too! I haven't seen a whole uniform made out of this stuff! It feels so weird...there's no manufacturing marks, it's not woven!"

She moved her eyes down to the combadge, looking like a Ferengi seeing a free sample table. Without hesitation she pulled at the device tugging on the captain's uniform.

"Microfilaments, actual, real gold, and...and...I don't even know what else is in this!" she beamed, then a look of excitement crossed her face and looked up at Hayes, still holding onto his badge. "Do you have prosthetics? Things to-to help people who need help with their bodies?"

Hayes carefully took hold of his combadge in one hand, and the girl's hand in the other, "Excuse me, I'd be happy to explain it if you ask first next time."

She blinked at him, and released the badge, looking downcast.

"And we do have medical technology to help people with disabilities," Hayes explained. One of the gold shirts was getting antsy, but Hayes glanced at him and shook his head.

"You do?" the young woman looked delighted. "Oh, excellent! Can I see any of it?"

"Ah-maybe later," Hayes said. "Are you hurt? We can help if-"

She shook her head. "Oh, no, it's not for me. It's for my lab partner!"

The Caitian groaned and rubbed her hand over her face. Hayes glanced at her, then looked back to the pink-haired girl. "Your...lab partner?"

She nodded. "He's not here, but if we went and got him and then we could look at your technology…"

"I'm...sure we could arrange it," Hayes said. No doubt this planet was woefully behind in terms of medical technology. He could easily picture all kinds of ailments her 'lab partner' might be suffering from.

"Entrapta…" Adora said, rubbing her forehead. "We'll-we'll talk about it later, okay?"

Okay," Entrapta sighed, then quickly stepped away from Adora, making her wince, "Well, I guess we can't really do anything since he's not here…"

Hayes shook his head, "Okay! Now…" He took a deep breath, "There's no getting around it. We have taken you into custody for your own protection. You are currently aboard my ship, the USS _Belleau Wood_, currently orbiting your planet. You are in space above your planet. Do you understand what that means?"

Adora tore her gaze off Entrapta back toward the captain. Her eyes widened slightly.

Glimmer shook her head, "That's impossible. That's kid's stuff!"

"Hey…!" the boy with odd fashion sense said half-heartedly.

"Okay, it's fiction, then! Whatever! There is no way we can _really_ be in space!"

"What about what Sh...you-know-who said?" Bow asked.

"You mean listen to what _the enemy_ has to say?" Glimmer growled.

Adora was silent, looking down at the floor. "'Explorers'…'from beyond the stars'…"

Hayes put a hand to his face, _Damned Leibowitz-types…_ Some days he wished for his compression rifle and battle armor back. At least it wouldn't be him making the decisions. Give him Orions over this.

He looked back at the kids, who were now arguing amongst themselves. If this was how they handled the idea of space travel, how would they handle their true ancestry? How would they handle...everything?

The tall girl, Adora, wasn't participating in the argument. She was looking at Reed again, then to the captain. She glanced at the guards, then down at the ground again. She seemed to be muttering to herself.

Behind the boy and Glimmer, the others were just confused.

The large scorpion girl and..._wait a minute, where-?_

"Hey, you! Bowman!" A husky female voice called out. The Caitian was a few meters away, standing there leaning on one leg with her arms crossed, just beside the group close to him.

Hayes nearly jumped; he hadn't even _heard_ her approach!

Her multi-colored eyes peered into him, with a light he'd not seen in a teenager's eyes since the Cardassian Wars.

"It's Captain Bowman, right?" she asked.

"Archer is my first name. I'm Captain Hayes."

She nodded, "So, you're a captain. In who's navy?"

"Starfleet. We're the Federation's deep space exploratory and defense service. I believe I said this."

"Sure, sure," the caitian said, nodding, "we haven't been properly introduced. I'm Force Captain Catra, back there behind me is Force Captain Scorpia," the large scorpion girl waved cheerfully behind her, "and this is Traitor, her friend the sparkly Princess, and..." She peered at the boy, "I don't even remember him."

"Catra…" Adora hissed, and the caitian smirked at her.

"Is there something you want, Force Captain?" Hayes asked, "I was trying to answer everyone's questions."

"Sure you were. But I don't think they asked the right questions. Why did you _attack_ us?"

The others focused their attention on Hayes.

He set his jaw, "Casualties have been kept to an absolute minimum. We have done our very best to limit the damage done to your infrastructure and facilities."

"So you didn't kill us. That didn't answer the question, bowman. I didn't ask how, I asked _why_. Who's side are you on?"

Hayes grimaced, "This is all very difficult to explain..."

She looked around, her eyebrows raised, "Eh, I'm not doing anything, apparently. It's just your time we're burning. So, you gonna explain, or…?"

The security guards behind Hayes stepped up yet again, but he held out a hand.

Catra waved her hand, "I'm sure there's been some sort of misunderstanding to make you come blasting in like you did. And shoot all of us. How do those things work, anyway? That didn't feel anything like-"

"...That time you electrocuted me?! _Twice?!_" Adora snapped.

"It was a reflex!" the caitian barked back, "And it's not like you were any better!"

"I'm not the one who flings people off of cliffs, and throws _herself_ off them more often than not!" the other girl was in Catra's face now.

"And how many of those times were your fault?!" the caitian shoved her face back.

On reflex, without even thinking, Hayes stepped forward to try and separate them. Reed and the guards called out, and Hayes realized his mistake.

In a flash the caitian had turned toward him, and lunged.

Hayes stepped to the side as age old instincts kicked in, parrying her lunge to one side. He noted in the back of his mind that the attack, as well as his response, both felt familiar.

Her plan failed, Catra was going to try again.

**XXXXX**

Catra charged, only to bounce off the air. A shimmer ran through the air for an instant, in an arc shape.

She reached out again and touched whatever it was. It was a force field, with a slight stinging charge to it. Angrily, she tried to back up, only to be hit with another charge. She whirled about in surprise, then went to either side, finding even more field. A perfect cylinder.

She roared, a strange look on her face as she hammered at the barrier. She clawed and pounded desperately. She soon got an idea. She crouched and jumped up against the wall, then launched herself to the opposite side, trying to climb up the tube.

Once she lost momentum, Catra started shimmying up it like a mountain climber, her back against one side with her feet against the other side.

A shimmer went above her, and a barrier appeared just above her. She figured it out after bonking her head.

"We're making sure you don't hurt yourself-" the captain called out, but Catra had lost her grip on the wall and fallen down to the bottom of the cylinder.

She fell hard, but was up again in an instant, cursing loudly.

Adora looked on in horror, her eyes as wide as dinner plates, "Oh no…!"

"Let me outta here!" Catra shrieked, "Let me outta here before I-"

She swore again, putting her back and feet against the sides again and pushing with all her might. A painful _cracking_ sound came from her back, and she roared again. She straightened up, wincing painfully, and scrabbled at the force field.

"Let me _out_!" she demanded, kicking the wall, and wincing, "Let me _out_!"

Catra kicked it again, repeating her demand over and over, punctuating each one with a painful kick and holding whatever she'd hurt in her back.

Scorpia was already headed toward the cylinder, but Adora had passed her rapidly. She was there, against the force field, pounding on the other side.

"Let her out, damn you!" she roared, fury coursing through her veins and making her visibly vibrate. She wanted her sword, She-ra could cut through this force field with no problem. "Let her out!"

Catra kept pounding on her side, screaming with fury and pain. Her voice cracked, and a choked sob escaped in between angry yells.

Scorpia made it to the field, "We're here, Catra!" she touched one of her claws to the shield, biting her lip. In her experience, you couldn't break a force field with your hands (or claws) alone, but just being on the other side helped. "We'll get you out!"

"C'mon, c'mon…!" Adora muttered, cursing and feeling around for a hole, a gap, anything.

The strange captain stared at the scene, then glanced back at the blue officer, wondering what was going on, "Well?! Let her out!"

The officer blinked, then hurriedly pressed a few controls.

The field dispersed, and Catra stumbled forward, losing her balance. She fell onto Adora, who caught her and pulled her close. Catra's angry roars now interspersed with controlled sobs. She snarled and hissed as tears spilled out of her eyes, and she clung to Adora like a liferaft.

"Hey, hey, c'mere'," Scorpia gently touched Catra's shoulder, and Catra let go of Adora, taking a deep breath.

Adora took a step back, putting up her hands, as if shocked at making physical contact.

Scorpia took that as leave to scoop Catra up in her claws. "If you wanted a hug, you didn't need to go hugging a princess!" she teased, but her voice trembled just the slightest bit.

Catra hissed at her. "Scorpia, let go!" she snapped and scrambled out of Scorpia's arms. She glared at Adora and scrubbed her cheeks.

Catra was still shivering. "Get outta here," she snarled, her tail whisking back and forth and eyes darting from side to side. She clung to Scorpia's arm.

Adora glared at the captain, "Is this what you wanted?! Huh?! What's wrong with you people?! How could you do this to someone?!"

"Yeah, force fields are no fair," Scorpia said, putting her claw on Catra's shoulder. Catra continued to glare, but didn't shrug Scorpia off.

Hayes reached out a hand slightly, then dropped it. "I apologize, I had no idea she would react that way. Do we need a medic? Is she hurt?"

"Stay away from her and she'll be fine!" Adora barked.

"Captain, we may want to postpone this…" the blue officer murmured, "At least for a little while..."

"Ah... alright. Um...if any of you people need assistance, just knock on the door. We'll hear."

"_Just leave us alone!" _Catra shrieked.

The Starfleet personnel retreated rapidly, the door sighing shut behind them. Catra retreated to one of the beds, cradling her bruised hands. Her feet were tough enough to withstand the damage she'd done by kicking the forcefield, but her hands were more sensitive. Scorpia and Adora followed her.

"Hey, no worries," Scorpia assured her. "Force fields are a nightmare. I mean, man, they're useful, but ugh," she gave an exaggerated shudder.

"Are you...okay?" Adora asked, stopping a few feet away.

Catra glared up at Adora.

Glimmer watched Adora trail after the Horde captains, a frown between her brows. Being stuck here with the Horde soldiers made everything weird. They'd been glad to see that Entrapta was still okay (well, for her), and Entrapta had been happy to see them in her own weird way, but being trapped in a room with Princess Scorpia and Catra was just...freaky.

Glimmer and Bow knew about Catra and Adora growing up together, and Catra's weird obsession with Adora. They didn't like to spread it around, though, and Adora didn't like to talk about the other parts of growing up under the Horde.

Adora hunched her shoulders. "Force fields-they're just-" she closed her eyes and she sighed.

"Did that happen to her growing up?" Bow asked, glancing over at Scorpia and Catra, "Did you grow up with Scorpia too?"

"You could say that..." Adora said. "As for Scorpia? I saw her around a few times. She's...well, she's nice, I guess. For a Horde soldier."

Glimmer glared. "She doesn't seem very nice whenever she attacks me. It's almost like she's specifically after me," she said, folding her arms.

"Well, you know. Horde soldiers."

"Wait, you grew up with Catra?" Perfuma asked.

Adora looked down at her hands, folded in her lap. "Like I said. We've known each other since we were kids."

"She danced with her at the Princess Ball," Mermista drawled.

"I danced with a bunch of people at the Ball," Adora snapped.

Mermista shrugged and played with her hair. "Yeah, but then you guys had a fistfight in the middle of the dance. Then the place blew up, so, like, whatever."

"Catra's really fun!" Entrapta said, sidling up to them, "She and Hordak like doing experiments!" Entrapta tapped her chin with one finger. "Mostly if they involve weapons. Or portals. But Catra brings snacks, too, so that's good." her head hung down a little. "Catra doesn't talk to me much anymore, though…" she glanced at Catra, looking hurt. Catra didn't look back at her.

"Entrapta, why did you join them? I mean...even with all the stuff they have, can't you see what they're doing?" Glimmer asked, horrified.

Entrapta shrugged. She shrank back a bit, "Not really...no one tells me things."

"Entrapta!" Glimmer gritted her teeth. "You're supposed to be a princess! You should know! Why haven't you figured it out?"

Entrapta looked at the ground, looking abashed for the first time. She scuffed a foot back and forth, "I thought you guys abandoned me."

She gave a sidelong glance at Adora, with an expression that made Adora's heart break and turn away.

"I-well, Catra said I could do my experiments, and then they brought all my stuff, and then Hordak was my lab partner, so…"

"Your lab partner?" Bow squeaked.

Adora sighed.

"And she said you ran off and left her before," Entrapta looked at Adora again. "So I figured it was something you did all the time anyway."

"It wasn't like that!" Adora exclaimed.

Over on the other side of the room, Catra let out a growl, her ears twitching.

"What exactly were you trying to do, Catra?" Scorpia asked innocently.

Catra rubbed her hands together, "He was important enough to have guards. I figured a claw at his throat might be good enough to make him release us."

"I haven't seen anyone outside our guys move like that…" Scorpia muttered, scratching her head and looking at the door, "Who are these guys?"

Adora sat down on one of the beds, thinking "Hayes' " words over. _Starships, explorers from beyond the stars…_

_Stars._

She looked around at the room, built out of smooth shiny materials easy on the eyes. In the Fright Zone, it was all cold steel, built for function and not much else. It had been home, but in a rough way, like how a foxhole was _your_ foxhole no matter how bad. This place was...warm. It was welcoming.

Putting a hand on the bed, she noted how squishy it was, how comfortable. It was built _like_ the bunks back home- back in the Fright Zone, but it was different. It had no springs, no straw, not cotton...it was something else. The blankets were the same as the uniforms, not woven or made with mill looms. It was a bunk like any other, but it was better than the beds in Bright Moon. She wasn't constantly falling into it, and the blankets were even better than the sheep's wool.

Then there was what she'd seen before waking up here.

Ever since she could remember, there had been stars. A star here or there. They had always seemed to be present, little dots in the sky that were always reassuring. One or two at a time, for the entire world. She had never found it strange...at least, not until a few months ago.

Ever since she'd first touched the sword of She-ra, and encountered Madame Razz, there had been a niggling doubt in the back of her mind, that _something_ was wrong. On top of the multitude of other problems.

In her dreams, she kept seeing wondrous sights, of a sky _full_ of stars, a vast beautiful array. Across the horizon, a shape like spilled milk across the sky.

One morning she'd woken up with the word "_constellations_" on her lips. No one told her what it meant, but it hadn't been quite a focus.

Then...meeting Bow's parents, she'd learned constellations meant _stars_. Thousands of stars, uncountable, far and distant. Beautiful and foreboding at the same time.

Her first sight of them had filled a void in her heart she hadn't known existed.

They'd been in the middle of their expedition to the Crimson Wastes, trying to reach the strange signal in the center of it. They'd picked up a friend along the way, Huntara, who was leading them to the signal.

One night, a strange feeling had gone over the four.

Bow called it "deja vu", before something even stranger happened.

Something appeared in both Glimmer and Adora's vision. Bow and Huntara couldn't see it, but it was right in front of their faces. As if it were on their very pupils.

Glimmer couldn't read it, as she'd shouted in between screams of panic, but Adora could. While also freaking out.

"_SYSTEM ALERT: EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN OF ETERNIA PROCEDURES. ALL PERSONNEL SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY_."

Chaos ensued.

The ground shook, like the worst earthquake they'd ever experienced. The clouds in the sky thickened, and far, far in the distance, just over the horizon, a beam of light shot into the sky, a wavering stream of energy that glowed with ribbons of every color of the rainbow. In the opposite direction, even further away, another beam activated. Another to the south, and there may have been another to the north, but there were mountains in the way.

The beams cut holes through the clouds for several seconds, then abruptly cut off.

The ground heaved its worst one final time, then began to settle. The quakes were still very intense, but slowly calmed.

Within hours, the clouds had cleared.

And _constellations_ filled the sky.

As brilliant as they were, and as much relief as she felt, Adora was nervous.

No matter what appeared in the sky though, they felt it couldn't change things yet. The only way they knew additional Horde troops could appear was through a portal, and that was their priority.

They decided their best chance was to continue on and try to find the source of the signal.

The last thing Adora remembered was making camp under the stars, the novelty still not wearing off. She'd wondered what exactly was up there.

After that, everything was blank.

Except a dream. A dream that became a nightmare. Anxiety, fear, anger, strange glowing figures…

Catra for some reason. She must've followed them.

Then sudden pain, numbness, and she couldn't wake up.

All she recalled from the dream was one word.

"_Peregrine_".

When she woke up, they were in this chamber, with the others; Mermista, Perfuma, Frosta, Catra, Scorpia, and Entrapta.

Their jailors appeared when she and Catra saw each other. They rushed in to separate them.

She had no idea who broke the one woman's wrist, and who gave the man a concussion. She had no doubt Catra couldn't remember either.

She had no clue what happened to Huntara, at least at first. According to the other princesses, it had been days since they'd disappeared. The ex-bandit/ex-Horde soldier had stumbled into Bright Moon ranting about "soldiers in gold".

The rest of the princess alliance said they'd ventured into the desert on a rescue mission, then woke up in the chamber, the same as the rest.

Entrapta had reported that Catra and Scorpia had gone missing under similar circumstances, and she'd followed along with a Horde escort, before she blacked out herself.

And they'd all woken up at the same time, despite those time differences. What was going on?

Upon hearing the word "starship", Adora's thoughts snapped back to the present. "What?"

"He said starship, didn't he?" Glimmer asked, "That explains everything! We must be on some kind of airship! Starship must be some fancy name!"

"Yeah, but where'd they get the hydrogen? There must be tons of it!" Bow said.

"It's probably First Ones tech," Adora said, "these people must've found an old ship and fixed it up."

She decided not to comment on if she thought it was an airship or a spaceship.

"Yeah, but where's the plumbing?" Mermista asked, "No matter where I go, I can always access at least the plumbing…"

"Whoever they are, and wherever we are, we're getting out of here." Glimmer said, "anyone got any ideas?"

"Have you tried the hatch?" Entrapta asked, eating a sandwich cut into small parts and pointing at a trapezoid-shaped hatch in the corner of the room.

"The locked one you mean?" Frosta asked, finally joining the group.

"I can open it. But I'll need some time to figure out how, and I'm betting we don't want them seeing us do it?"

"If we wait until lights out though - if they have it - how will we see anything?" Perfuma asked.

Bow thought for a moment, "Adora, what's Catra's night vision like?"

Glimmer shook her head, "Oh no! We're not doing that!"

"Glimmer…"

"No, Bow! If we get their help, they'll probably lock us in here when they get out! They're all a bunch of backstabbing-"

Her gaze fell on Adora, "Um…"

"No offense taken," Adora sighed, resting her head on her hand, "I know what you're saying."

"It's our best shot!" Bow said loudly.

"Better them than any other Horde members," Frosta pointed out, "They were at least agreeable before trying to blow up my palace during the dance. So long as we don't put too much trust in them we should be fine."

"Who's going to talk to them, then?" Glimmer demanded.

"_I'll _talk to them!" Bow replied, somewhat exasperated, "They don't like princesses, remember? They might hate me slightly less." he paused. "I mean...I think so."

He took a step, and Glimmer's hand shot out. "Bow, just...just be careful."

"I will. You're watching my back, right?"

She nodded, and with that, Bow started walking.

It was a short distance to the Horde officers, but it felt like a mile.

Catra turned to look at him, and scowled.

"What do you want, midriff?" she growled.

"I just want to talk."

"Well, sorry, you've gotta get thrown off the cliff before you get admitted to the ex-sidekick club."

"What?"

"Sorry, we can't talk to the enemy. Fraternization with the enemy is not allowed under ROE." Scorpia said. Her face was neutral, her normal positive if not smiling expression gone.

"Then why does she keep talking to Adora?!" Glimmer demanded from across the room.

"Glimmer, don't." Adora murmured.

Bow rubbed the bridge of his nose, then looked at the Horde officers, "Okay, these guys are obviously a much bigger threat than us. They have weapons that are better than even your people's. If we work together, we can all get out of here."

Entrapta approached, "I can open the hatch, I just need your eyes. I wish I could invent something that could allow anyone to see like that. I've always wanted to see beyond visible light…"

Bow smiled a little, "There, see? With your night vision and Entrapta's-"

Catra's hand drew into a fist, then pounded the table, "Absolutely _not_. Entrapta's with us, and I don't think eyeballs work if you pull them out of someone's skull. So we're holding all the power here. _We don't need you_."

The princesses watching turned away, or at least shifted their attention. Their plan seemed to have failed.

Bow opened his mouth to speak, but was still disappointed.

Before he could say anything, Catra glanced at the others, then beckoned him closer, "You, you're no prince or princess or whatever. How can you follow them? All they do is fight their little squabbles with each other. All they did was bicker! They lead through fear and oppression, do you have any kind of say in their decisions? Can you move up without being in a noble house? Even the powerless nobles rule you! The average person can't hope to match their power, so you can't even rebel! They're obsessed with maintaining their power, that's all that matters to them! Not water, not food, just holding onto their little domain!"

"I…"

Catra's eyes shifted, softening somewhat, "You don't get it. People in these situations never do. Can't you see you're just cannon fodder? Scorpia tossed you around like you were nothing because you had, what, a bow? Glimmer can teleport, Adora can tear apart tanks, and then there's you. They keep all the power to themselves. The Horde might do some bad things, but you can't beat guns, you can't beat _science_. Guns not your speed? You ever heard of a compound bow? You can get the power of a guy three times your size from one, and the bow is half the size of a longbow."

"Gotta admit, the way I hear it, before the Horde showed up, we didn't have showers, or electricity. Or hovercraft. Or nightlife…" Scorpia scratched her head.

Catra stood up, and smirked a little, "You're like us. Look, you, me, Scorpia, Entrapta, we're not like those freaks. We're normal. Or normal enough. We can get out of here without them! We've got all the power, just come with us, we'll leave them behind!"

Bow had heard this sort of thing before, and ignored most of it, but…

She was right. They _did_ hold all the power. What was stopping them?

A paper plate hit the floor. Crumbs scattered across the floor.

All three looked at Entrapta, who stared wide-eyed at them, her hair slack.

"...You...you just want to leave them?" she whispered.

Catra blinked, then nodded, "Yeah, you got it, Entrapta. Just like they left you, right?"

Entrapta looked down, flipping her welding mask down.

She held up one of her recorders, and pressed the playback option. The recorder squeaked, then spouted a tinny rendition of her words, "_Fright Zone log, hour 45. Is that right? I don't know, it was hard to tell in the walls. Hour 45, that's- That's too many hours. This angry feline person seems to be correct. They're not coming back for me._"

Catra nodded, "Yes, Entrapta, just like that."

Entrapta flipped her mask back up, "But...but we can't do that. You said we were better than them, didn't you? Shouldn't we be better than them, and save them?"

"Entrapta-" Scorpia started, but Entrapta looked at her. Not a glare, but there was something in her eyes.

"They're nice! You're all nice, but so are they! I don't know if they meant to leave me!"

"Of course they-" Catra snarled.

"They said it was an accident, they explained what happened! Abandoning teammates aside, they're valuable! We can't hope to take on these people with what we have right now, we could use their abilities! We can't just leave them! It's wrong!"

Catra was utterly perplexed, then scowled, "They left you! They leave everyone behind! That's all they do! They use people then leave them!"

"You said we weren't like them!" Entrapta said, pointing with hair and arm, "So that means we don't leave anyone behind, unlike them, right?"

"But they're the enemy!" Scorpia protested.

"They're _princesses_!" Catra barked.

Entrapta's face drew into the closest it could to a scowl. She threw the remains of her sandwich on the floor, and crossed her arms, "I am not doing _anything_ anyone wants unless we all go!"

"Entrapta-" Scorpia and Catra both said, but Entrapta stomped and glared.

"I _said_, we're not going anywhere_._ Either we go together, or none of us go."

"_Entrapta_-" Catra repeated.

Entrapta pulled her mask down again, then resumed her stance.


	2. Chapter 2

"Catra... Catra…!"

The hiss woke Catra from sleep, and she dug one hand into the pillow she was using.

"Catra!"

Catra gritted her teeth. "Adora, you had better be on fire or have a really good excuse."

"Oh, for the love of- Catra, come on!"

Catra moved one hand away from where it rested near her head, and she opened one yellow eye to glare at Adora.

Adora was scowling at her. "I thought you were going to stay awake!"

Catra shrugged. "Well, you told me to, so...you have only yourself to blame."

"Catra, I can barely see my own hand, and you're the only one who-"

"Yeah, yeah," Catra grumbled, swinging her legs up off the bed, "reason number two you needed a sidekick, right? I can see things you can't?"

Adora huffed, "Don't start that again, Catra, please?"

Catra shrugged, "Sure, we can talk about other things. When are you going to abandon your new sidekicks?"

She walked right past Bow and Glimmer as she spoke, who looked at each other, then to Adora.

Adora sighed, and simply trailed the Horde officer.

"I mean, I tell ya, that Hayes guy? Hm, betcha can't wait to get your hands on him!"

Adora facepalmed, not knowing if the innuendo was intentional.

"These guys seem pretty good at what they do," Catra continued as they reached the wall, "or do they have too many guns for you? You want more bows and arrows? Nah wait, they don't use bullets, they're all futuristic, so they're the right kind of high tech for you."

She ran a hand along the wall, looking for a shape.

"Please stop, Catra," Adora said, "we've got work to do!"

"Never stopped us before. Not like you care, anyway. So long as you get out looking good, what else matters?"

"Catra-!" Adora huffed, "just...just stop talking. They might hear us."

"Man, they hide these things well…"

Her hand found the inset shape in the wall, the trapezoidal hatch about a meter wide.

"...but not enough for me. Now how were we going to open it?"

Entrapta appeared beside her, "It's got some magnetic lock, and it looks like they've got slightly higher pressure on the other side to keep us from opening it. Or maybe it's normal outside, and they just lower the pressure in here."

"So then…?"

"I can use the batteries from my recorders to mess with the pressure in here, then we can open it! These people use so little energy for their systems, it's amazing! Just tell me where the panel is, I can't see a thing."

"Can you open it without them knowing?" Adora asked.

"Probably not, at least not forever," Entrapta replied, yanking the panel off the wall with Catra's help, "We're going to need to start running a few minutes after we get out."

"Excuse me," Frosta spoke up in the dark, "but does anyone know what we're going to do once we open this door? We have no idea what is on the other side."

"Access tunnel junction 14, deck 7," Entrapta said, yanking the battery out of her voice recorder and plugging it into a cord Catra held for her, "that's what the lady told me before they cut off access."

"What lady?" Catra asked.

"She was fun. Really stiff but she had a lot of information!"

"What lady?" Glimmer asked.

Entrapta glanced at her, "The one in the machine. El-cars."

The others exchanged looks, but Adora had on an odd expression, "what do you mean she was stiff?"

"She talked funny. She didn't say hi or anything. She just talked when I said things. She said 'Unable to comply' or 'insufficient data' a lot. By the way, pressure has been equalized and the magnetic lock has lost some power."

"_What?!_" Catra demanded, "Why didn't you-Scorpia! Come here! Help me with this!"

She stuck her claws in the small crack, and pulled. Scorpia took the other side side, and they made some progress.

Adora got in on Catra's side, both pulling with all their might.

Bow got on Scorpia's side and pulled. Glimmer joined in, helping the other two.

Slowly, with the creak of tortured metal and the whine of an abused motor, the gap was widened.

Light spilled into the compartment from a pair of lighting panels that ran along either side of the long tube on the other side of the door. It was a small tube barely big enough to crawl in, and ran off into the distance, with a junction appearing somewhere along the length.

"Won't be long before they figure it out!" Entrapta said.

Adora leaned in, "Entrapta, any idea which way we should go?"

"If we can find our way to whatever counts as a main deck on an airship, maybe we can find a way down." Glimmer said.

"They might have parachutes!" Bow suggested.

"Yeah, but which way?"

Entrapta climbed into the tube. "El-cars didn't like to talk about deck plans. Deck 3 was the control room, so we don't want to go there!"

"If it's an airship, we want to head for the bottom then." Bow said.

"Yeah, no duh." Catra hissed, and crawled into the tube, "Alright, Entrapta, just find us a ladder then we can all stop working together."

Adora thumped her head against the wall, squeezing her eyes shut, and waved everyone into the tube.

Glimmer got in last, then Adora followed her. They crouched just inside the hatch and pulled it shut.

"Think we can get out?" Glimmer whispered.

"Whatever happens, we'll make it." Adora replied, "We stick together, we'll get through this."

She turned around and froze. Catra was sitting there on her haunches in the tube.

Her face was flat, except her eyes were narrowed. "Guess you didn't need help closing the hatch."

She turned around and crawled back toward the end of the tube, passing the other escapees and occasionally swatting them with her tail.

Entrapta was crouched near the junction, and looked to either side.

"Left. I think."

"You _think_?" Mermista asked.

"El-cars didn't like to talk about deck plans! She was very quiet!"

"Do the machines talk back to her all the time?" Catra whispered, glancing from Perfuma to Mermista. "You people knew her longer."

"I have no idea," Perfuma replied, giving an irritated little huff and folding her arms. "But she at least has some idea of where to go."

"Yes, probably left!" Entrapta said enthusiastically, and crawled around the corner.

They crawled along the tunnel, surprisingly well-lit for what appeared to be a maintenance corridor. Every once in a while they had to move Entrapta along whenever she started poking at something along the walls.

They finally reached another hatch. Catra moved forward to try and open it, but to their surprise, it opened on its own!

Instead of a bunch of guards in gold shirts pointing weapons at them, there was only a small empty room on the other side.

Entrapta eagerly crawled past and climbed out, stretching her limbs and her prehensile hair. Quickly they emerged into the small chamber.

It looked like a spacious maintenance closet. Along the right side of the wall was a ladder that ran from the top of the room to the bottom, a hatch at either end.

To the left was a large door, perhaps a meter or so wide, unlike the door to their prison. It was split down the middle, with an odd silver panel on one side. Against the opposite wall was a computer panel, far more advanced than anything in the Horde. It looked like the odd screen used by the beverage machine, or the panels that Entrapta had been experimenting with before their captors cut the power.

Entrapta went over to the console as everyone hesitantly emerged. Catra and Adora followed Entrapta to the console, as she started inputting commands.

Catra looked at the dizzying array of orange, yellow, and blue colors that almost hurt to look at.

"Think you can try _not_ getting locked out of this one?" she asked Entrapta.

"For the next five minutes!" she replied, smiling, "Hello, El-cars! How are you?"

"_Systems are operating within normal parameters_." a stiff female voice replied, and everyone jumped at that.

"Whoa! Who the heck is that?!" Catra demanded, claws out and looking between the console and the rest of the room.

"...El-cars?" Entrapta looked at her like she was crazy, "we talked about this."

"The lady in the machine was real?" Glimmer asked.

"Just humor her…" Perfuma said suppressing the urge to facepalm.

Entrapta started entering commands into the console. Adora moved closer to see the screen, then noticed the text.

"That doesn't say El-cars... that's more like Li-cars."

"Well, yes," Entrapta said, scrolling through menus, "but that's not how it's pronounced."

"Wait, you can read that stuff?" Catra asked, "looks like gibberish to me."

Adora's eyes widened. She turned to the others, and grabbed Glimmer, "Glimmer, what does this look like? First Ones script?"

Glimmer looked at the screen for a moment, bewildered by the sight, "Hey...yeah! What- what is going on here? What is this?

The female voice spoke out again, "_This is maintenance access terminal 4, deck 7._"

Glimmer shook her head, "Okay, who is that? _What_ is that? Who is 'El-cars'?"

"_The Library Computer Access and Retrieval System, abbreviated as L.C.A.R.S. and commonly pronounced 'el-cars', is a command subsystem that acts as the primary means of interacting with and operating Starfleet computers._"

"Are...are you alive?" Adora asked.

"_The LCARS_ _is an interactive interface, not an individual. It is not self-aware, it does not have a soul._"

"Well, I can see what you mean by stiff," Catra said to Entrapta.

"I'd like to talk to her more, anyway." The girl replied.

"Yeah... how about we get out of here first?"

Entrapta brought up a strange looking map. It almost looked like a naval vessel, but any ship like that upon the sea would tear itself apart. It was like a catamaran, but with the hull circular, and held way too far in front of the pontoons.

"What is that?" Mermista frowned and tilted her head as she looked at the map. She reached out, tracing the design with her finger, not quite touching the image. "This doesn't look right at all," her voice lost its normal disinterested drawl, and her brows came together. "Like...someone who didn't know how to build a ship made it…"

The image turned on its side, to display a cutaway view. A red line traced itself to a large open space.

Mermista scowled. "That's some sort of hangar. We should be able to get out from there." she pointed at the spot indicated. "See? It leads outside."

Adora looked at the ladder, seeing labels she hadn't noticed before. The one in the center, to the side of the rungs, read "_DECK 7_". Below it, close to the open hatch, read "_DECK 8_", and at its counterpart above, another label read "_DECK 6_".

"Alright Entrapta, you lead the way." Adora said.

Down went Entrapta, then Frosta, Perfuma, Mermista, and then Scorpia. Glimmer was next, jumping on and climbing quickly.

The door that had remained shut this whole time behind them hissed open.

Bow, Adora, and Catra whirled around.

Standing there was a large lizard-like creature, standing on both legs.

It looked for a second like Rogelio, the lizard who had been in Adora and Catra's squad only bigger and clad in one of their captor's gold and grey uniforms, carrying a small case of maintenance equipment.

He reacted instantly, taking a step back, and to the escapee's shock, did nothing but tap the insignia device on his chest. In a rough voice, he hurriedly called out, "Security, intruder alert! Deck 7, maintenance closet-"

A loud alarm rang, and there were a series of _klangs_. Before he could finish talking, Adora charged across the room, crouched slightly, then launched herself into the lizard's gut like a torpedo. He flew out the door and crashed into the opposite wall, crushing a human security guard under him.

She retrieved his dropped weapon, and rushed back into the maintenance closet.

Glimmer was still on the ladder, but had stopped moving. Both hatches on either end of the ladder had slammed shut, and she was pounding on the top one, "No no no no!"

Bow was standing on the lower one, and had pulled a panel off a control on the side, yanking fruitlessly on a manual lever.

Catra shoved Bow out of the way, and hammered three times on the hatch, "Hey, Scorpia! Keep them going! We'll find another way out of here!"

She jumped up, "Adora, hold that door open!"

Grabbing Bow, she shoved him in the direction of the door, then pulled Glimmer off the ladder, "C'mon sparks, we can't get through there! Just start running!"

Adora shrugged when Bow looked at her, "What she said, we gotta get outta here!"

Glimmer hesitated in the doorway, but Catra roughly shoved her, "_Go! What's wrong with you?!_"

Out into the corridor they went, trying to catch up to the other two. The corridor was fairly well-lit, for a naval vessel at least. Instead of bare deck plating, curiously it had carpeting.

It certainly helped with traction as they ran.

Adora and Bow dodged people in the corridor as they ran, mostly humans, but they caught sight of the blue people, people that looked like humans with pointy ears, and a handful of others. They wore the same uniforms, with that varying blue, red, or gold color in their turtlenecks.

In Catra's mind they were all fair targets.

Adora and Bow ran ahead, with the former bashing into a few people in her attempts to dodge.

Catra jumped and weaved around the enemy, occasionally using the walls to dive between foes.

Curiously, none seemed to be armed.

The familiar crackling buzz of an energy weapon discharging over her head dissipated any hope that no one at _all_ was armed.

Ahead of them, across a junction were a handful of gold shirts, all armed with those weird-looking energy weapons.

Adora fired her looted gun between them with a series of wild shots, suppressive fire rather than any particular aim.

"Go right!" Bow yelled.

Catra instinctively looked to their left, but there were more foes in that direction. They all rushed down the right corridor. They exchanged fire with the enemy, or rather Adora kept firing backwards without stopping.

They turned right down another corridor, and skidded to a halt. To their right side was a long corridor, with a wide door at the end of it. It was bigger than the rectangular split-doors they'd seen earlier. In fact, it looked like a giant version of the maintenance hatches. It looked like an exit.

It opened automatically as the doors always seemed to, and all four gaped at what they saw inside, then looked at each other.

"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's get outta here!" Glimmer said, grinning, and rushed through.

The others quickly followed, leaping out the door into the forest, and escape, that lay on the other side.

They stopped briefly to take it in, feeling the sun on their faces once again. Well, what little made it through the canopy. It was a tropical forest, more a jungle than anything else. They could hear odd animals chirping and squawking, the sound of water in the distance.

Behind them, the doorframe stood out in the middle of the jungle, and it looked like there was nothing behind it. Like someone had just built a door frame in the middle of the woods.

It must've been some sort of cloaking device.

"I thought we were on an airship." Adora muttered.

"So they landed, or we were never on one in the first place and your lackeys messed up, who cares?" Catra snapped, "Let's just get outta here!"

The stillness and the shifting air contrasted sharply with the loud enclosed spaces of their place of captivity. The group remained quiet.

With Adora in the lead, they made their way through a line of bushes toward the water. They slid down a small embankment to find a gentle, yet deep river before them. It looked like it would get high when it flooded. Up the other side, above the embankment, ran a tall hill. They could just make out a clearing at the top.

A line of rocks distributed across the water made it easy to get across. Bow jumped to one, rocking back and forth a little to test it. Finding it solid, he jumped to the next one, then the next.

This one he almost lost balance on, but managed to stay upright, "Careful, this one's loose!"

"Better be careful..." Glimmer muttered to Catra, then started across herself.

"Mind your cape, your highnessness." Catra snarled, jumping onto the rock.

Adora watched their backs, and heard the sigh of the door closing in the distance.

"They don't seem to be following us." she called out.

"Maybe we lost em?" Bow wondered.

"Probably not. If they know their stuff, they'll have perimeter sensors," Catra went into a crouch on the third rock, her tail swishing back and forth, "They'll have sent someone after us, or will be doing that soon-!"

Abruptly, she lost her balance, and fell on her side into the water with a splash and a shriek like a cat.

She managed to keep her hold on the rock, but was completely soaked.

Glimmer sputtered, and started laughing. Bow snorted a little.

"He said it was loose!" Glimmer said in between laughs.

Catra's cheeks burned as she struggled to get back onto the rock. The water was surprisingly deep.

Adora quickly stepped across and pulled Catra out of the creek, "You alright?"

She would have angrily struggled her way out of Adora's grip if it wouldn't have meant more exposure to a lot of water, so she settled for sticking out a leg reaching for the next rock, "I'm fine, let go of me!"

She got to the next rock. Grabbing a clump of her uniform, she tried to wring it out, but could only get a small portion.

Huffing, Catra made it to the shore.

"You don't normally lose balance like that," Adora said, "except that time you hurt your tail."

"I'm fine, let's stop talking about it!" Catra snarled.

"I don't know, we could use some humor after all this." Glimmer said with a smirk.

"Go climb a tree, sparky! Plenty of those around!"

"Glimmer, don't antagonize her." Bow said, stepping between the two.

"We want to get moving," Adora said, finally making it to shore, "first let's figure out where we are."

"Right," Catra said, wringing out some of her hair, "Let's find a way out of this dump. We can signal our own guys, bring in some reinforcements, knock some heads, and get our friends back."

As Adora finally reached the other side, Glimmer furrowed her brow, "Wait a minute. We're just going to _leave_? Now? Just like that? We've got to go back for our friends! We need to get our equipment!"

Catra scoffed, "look, I'm all for a rescue mission, but for your swords? Geez, you princess types. That's why I like firearms, you can just replace them."

Adora raised her eyebrows and folded her arms. "oh really, little miss touch-my-rifle-and-I'll-feed-it-to-you?"

Catra glared and turned away. "Hey, he was alright eventually!"

"Alright-?! Catra, Kyle had to get his tooth glued back in! He doesn't have nine lives you know!"

"What? It's not like you cared!"

"You're the one who keeps trying to kill us!" Glimmer accused, stepping in, "Do you care at all?"

"Cry me a river, sparkles! Oh wait, there's one right there! How about you get to feel like a drowned rat for a change?!"

Bow got between the arguing girls. "Guys, _guys_! We have no fresh water, no food, one laser gun I'm guessing is almost dead, no shelter, and we're stuck in the middle of a forest hiding a secret base full of crazy people! What makes you think this is a good idea?!"

Everyone immediately rounded on him. "She started it!" Catra and Adora exclaimed at once, each pointing to the other one.

Bow groaned and ran a hand down his face. "I don't care who started it, what made you think arguing was a good idea?! We're going to die without each other's help, so what's the point in it?!"

"Makes me feel better..." Catra grumbled.

Glimmer turned an accusatory glare on Catra. "Are all you Horde people this nuts?" she demanded, "you're always trying to hurt people like this! What did Adora ever do to you?!"

Catra laughed, "Are you kidding? What she did was the best thing that ever happened to me! I got myself some actual fr- allies! Ones who won't just be trying to use me for muscle!" she glared at Adora, who looked away.

"Now if you'll excuse me..." She said, turning about, "I gotta go rescue them."

Catra jumped up the embankment and sprinted up the hill.

"Catra! Catra, wait!" Adora growled when she didn't respond, and climbed up after her.

Bow followed, and Glimmer teleported the short distance up to the top of the embankment. She felt a brief moment of disorientation and dizziness, for a moment it was like she was falling. Then Bow grabbed her arm and they took off.

Catra was clambering her way up toward the clearing, or whatever it was. She could hear pounding surf, maybe it was the beach.

Her normally perfect hearing, able to tell when the enemy was turning on their... whatever it was they used when they were watching them, was being quite unhelpful. Sounds kept bouncing around, shifting and fluctuating. Her spatial awareness was off, she kept feeling like she was losing her balance.

She reached the top of the hill onto a flat area, a batch of greenery before the sand. She could see the surf through the gaps in the trees.

Her spatial awareness went off again.

To Catra's embarrassment, she fell face-first into the sand. Again.

She heard something. She lifted her head, and her multicolored eyes widened.

Looking up, Catra saw a pair of boots attached to a uniform. The dark uniform with grey shoulders and red turtleneck.

Captain Hayes stood there, pistol in hand.

"Hello." He said.

Catra heard the others come out of the brush, and halt.

Hayes aimed his weapon at Adora. Neither fired.

Catra looked back, then back at the captain. A handful of gold shirts were several meters behind him, carrying their own weapons.

"Put the phaser down." Hayes instructed slowly.

Adora placed the weapon on the ground, then stepped away, hands held up.

The goldshirts approached, and one of them retrieved the phaser.

Hayes looked down at Catra, "Please get up, but don't attack me. Seriously, kid, this thing may be non-lethal, but it stings."

Catra jumped to her feet, snuffling slightly, "I'm no kid. If anything, sparky is," and pointed to Glimmer over her shoulder.

Glimmer balled her hands into fists. "No I'm not!"

"Glimmer, is now the best time?" Bow asks through gritted teeth.

Hayes takes a step back, "look, I think I can call all of you kids regardless of your ages. You," he pointed to Catra, "What are you? Sixteen, seventeen? Right, so I'm more than a decade older than you."

"What are you going to do with us?" Adora asked.

"I wanted to finish our conversation." Hayes replied.

"What about our friends?" Glimmer asked.

"We're still trying to track them down. Don't worry, they won't be harmed."

"What about us?" Catra asked, "Torture, I assume?"

Hayes looked at her with shock for a moment, then sighed.

He looked at each of them, a strange look on his face.

"What am I going to do? Man, what _am_ I going to do?"

Hayes looked around the landscape, seeing a seagull passing by overhead. He stayed silent for a long time.

"Nice place, isn't it?"

He gestured with his phaser, toward a path off to one side that led back into the woods. With the guard's weapons at their backs, the group had little choice.

They went back through the woods toward the stream.

Hayes stopped near the water. He crouched, and stuck his hand in the cool liquid, "Real nice tropical place. Never been to many of them, and none like this."

"Well, you're here now, you can experience it." Bow said, trying to sound polite.

Hayes chuckled, "I've never been here. I've only seen it in pictures. It's a nature reserve back on Earth. Someplace called Gravett Island. Extremely isolated. Not even British explorers were able to spoil the place."

He looked over their faces, almost as if he was looking for something. Whatever it was, he didn't find it.

With a long, sad sigh, the officer got to his feet. "Earth. Terra? Sol? Mean anything to you k- people?"

Adora shrugged. Catra had her arms folded, and was looking up at the canopy.

Glimmer furrowed her brow, and Bow scratched his head.

"Venus? Luna? Mars? Jupiter? Saturn?"

Bow's hand froze suddenly, "Wait a minute…"

Bow looked at Glimmer, "Hey, do you remember any songs from kindergarten?"

Glimmer shrugged, "I was taught in the palace."

Bow glanced around, "Do any of you remember that song, uh...it had those words? Venus, Luna, Saturn..."

"What song?" Hayes asked.

"We just did cadences." Adora shrugged, "I don't know what he's talking about."

"I don't remember a lot from when I was that little…" Glimmer muttered.

"What song?" Hayes repeated.

Bow turned to the captain, cringing a little, "Uh...it's nothing, just this stupid little song from when I was little. It...uh…"

Bow's cheeks reddened a little, and he kept fidgeting.

"Well, at least tell me the name."

"I think it was _The Green Hills_…"

A small smile spread across Hayes' face, and he muttered, "'Take us back again to the homes of men, and the cool green hills of Earth'?"

"That's it. That's the song." Bow said.

Hayes frowned, "You people don't know how much you've lost, have you? You have no idea...you forgot Earth."

Catra chose that moment to clap slowly and derisively, "Yes, very moving. Now what have we accomplished today? We got captured, we escaped, then recaptured, and bowman here starts talking to other-bowman about music. What kind of imprisonment is this? What is going on? Who are all you people? 'Starfleet' means nothing to me, so maybe try giving me something else."

Hayes sighed for the millionth time, "Alright…"

He tapped the insignia on his chest as the maintenance technician had, and it chirped, "Hayes to Matthias. What do we want to do with them this time?"

Through a speaker on the device, a rough voice yet again not unlike the technician spoke, "_Matthias here. Captain, you really haven't spent much time around Leibowitz-types, have you_?"

"Listen you blunt lizard-"

"_Sir, with all due respect, for the love of the eight gods,_ find them a window_. Try deck 6._"

"Oh...right...Hayes out." He hit the insignia again, then looked up, "Computer?"

From the air, all around them it seemed, came a _chirp_, "End program."

The entire area shimmered. Everything just...dissolved. The trees, the sky, the creek, everything. Everything dissolved, to reveal a large empty room. The door they entered lay behind them, the metal floor was covered in grid patterns. A wireframe mesh ran around the entire room from floor to ceiling, broken only by lighting pillars.

Even the mud on their boots were gone.

The Starfleet crew tensed, weapons at the ready. Hayes inwardly cringed, hoping the reaction wouldn't be _too_ bad…

"Aw man, I was hoping to get more sun…" Bow murmured.

"No wonder I felt like I was falling!" Glimmer exclaimed.

"Oh great, another hologram and force field place," Catra groaned, and felt one side of her uniform, "...And I'm still soaked. Thanks." to her relief, the sounds had stopped bouncing around, and she no longer felt so disoriented. She must have been hearing whatever made the holograms, instead of what was really in the room.

"Well, no flashbacks this time…" Adora muttered, her arms crossed.

"And we don't have to rescue you this time..." Glimmer muttered.

Hayes looked at them, bewildered, "Wait, what? You've been in a holodeck before?"

"Is that what it's called?" Adora wondered.

"A bit better than what I called it. But I like to think mine was more accurate." Catra said, still tugging at her uniform and sending water droplets across the deck.

Hayes shook his head, then gestured to the guards, "Alright, bring them to deck 6, port side observation lounge."

"Sir?"

""We need windows and a place not built like a prison. Let's not be poor hosts." he grimaced. "Any more than we already have been."

They moved a short way down the hall to another door. It opened to reveal a small cylindrical chamber. The group briefly believed it was a cell, before Hayes stepped inside immediately.

They realized with hidden embarrassment it was just an elevator.

"Who puts an elevator on an airship?" Bow muttered, stepping inside. Once Adora and two guards were inside, the other two were stopped.

"Not enough room," one guard said, and pointed to a similar door a few meters down the hall, "We'll have to take the other one."

Glimmer and Adora exchanged worried looks, but Hayes held up both hands, "None of you will be harmed, I give you my word. That is the thing we least want to do."

"Your word. How much is that worth?" Catra scoffed, but did not seem to press the issue.

As the first lift shut, Catra and Glimmer were escorted to the other one. They entered first, then the pair of guards, who crowded in behind them.

"Deck 6." One called out.

The door shut.

Glimmer and Catra stood next to each other facing straight ahead. Catra had her arms folded and glowered at the door, as if trying to melt it with her gaze.

Faint music began to play as the lift moved. All was still.

"Where's that coming from?" one guard asked awkwardly.

"Someone from engineering was bored. They've been trying to get rid of it for hours."

"Huh."

The light music continued to play. The two prisoners/guests remained still.

Catra shook her head a bit, sending droplets of water all over the place.

Glimmer winced, holding up a hand to block some of the liquid, "Could you do that somewhere else?"

"_No_."

The guards tensed, and looked at each other. They shrugged, and took a step back.

The music continued playing.

After an uncomfortable amount of time, the doors finally opened again.

They emerged onto another deck, similar to the last one, but different. Down a few corridors they went, following Hayes' party a few meters ahead as they passed out of sight.

Before any anxiety could be created, they turned the corner and saw them again. On the right side of the corridor were sets of windows, it looked as if it was night outside. On the left was an opening of some kind, that led to a mess hall.

Hayes and his soldiers stood a few meters behind their "guests", who were up against the window.

Bow had his face pressed up against the glass, his eyes wide and an odd sound coming from his open mouth.

Adora just stood there silently, slack-jawed.

Catra walked up, deciding to have a brief amount of fun. "Hey, Adora."

She didn't respond, continuing to stare out the window.

"You know, I've noticed something weird about how you look at things. Sometimes you do this…"

Adora, without taking her eyes off whatever she was looking at, raised a trembling hand, "Ca...Ca...Ca…"

"You always do this thing where you're posing or something, it's so weird…"

Still not moving her eyes, Adora grabbed Catra's head with one hand and turned it sideways.

Catra looked out the window. And her jaw went slack.

Her tail shot straight out, her hair went up for a brief moment. Then everything went sort of limp.

"Is...what...what is that?"

Glimmer reached the window, and her eyes went wide. Her hands gripped a railing, and her knuckles went white.

Glimmer garbled, "What...what…where...?"

"What do you think it is?!" Catra snarled, "That's the freakin' _globe_!"

Held within a stunning starscape lay a sphere, a giant world that also seemed so small at the same time.

Etheria, their home, everything they knew...was stretched out far beyond and below them.

Hayes stood behind them, watching with a small smile.

He felt the deck shake a little with footsteps. He turned to see a tall being approaching.

No homo sapien, he had a thick hide of green skin, a long skull with a powerful jaw, and hands that each looked strong enough to crush a man's hand. Almost six feet tall, the being was built like a dinosaur crossed with a dragon. His boots were large, covering his feet that had to be half again as long as that of the average person, challenging even Scorpia's feet. Across the top of his head, and to either side ran rows of small fins that were a lighter shade of green than his hide. A short tail moved behind him, with two rows of fins matching those on his head.

Yet, for all his mass and power, his lizard-like eyes clearly held an intelligent mind.

He wore a uniform like Hayes's, with three golden pips on his collar.

He was another being like the maintenance technician, and second in command of the _Belleau Wood_. Commander Seetar Matthias, a Gorn.

He looked on at the scene, then to his commanding officer.

"It's called the Overview Effect, sir," he explained with a rough hissing voice, "I'm surprised you forgot about it. How did you make it to captain?"

"I've been a little busy, commander. I can't remember everything every second of the day! Do you remember when I last slept?!"

"I-"

"Seriously, I'm asking. I lost track yesterday. Normally I'm a lot better about these things."

Matthias chuckled, a hissing alien laugh that faded in and out to a _ki-ki-ki_ sound, "I'm only teasing, sir. We're all on the end of our ropes. This has been a rough couple of weeks."

He gestured to the group before him, "But isn't it worth it sometimes?"

"Where are the others?"

Matthias pointed behind him, to the mess hall/observation deck opposite the windows.

"Oh," Hayes nodded. He turned to his companions. "Come on," he said. "Your friends are over here."

It took a few moments for them to tear their eyes away from the planet, but he lead the group into the observation deck.

"You'll be more comfortable here," he said. The deck was through a set of large blast doors, currently concealed within the walls. It was built to look more like an open-air restaurant than a military ship, with artificial flowers on the tables, comfortable chairs placed near the windows, and a few paintings on the walls.

Adora immediately went to sit down on one of the chairs, her legs shaky.

The girl in the flower dress had pushed two of the larger chairs together and was stretched out, asleep. A Starfleet medic was keeping on eye on her, but she seemed alright, snoring peacefully.

The girl in the wetsuit sat near her rubbing the bridge of her nose. She looked exhausted, and her head kept drooping, as if she were on the verge of dozing off.

The small girl was standing a little further down the hall, looking down at the planet as well. She seemed a little more controlled.

The techie girl stood next to her, or rather sat on her prehensile hair, drawing or writing something on a pad of paper she must've "borrowed" from the observation deck.

The large girl with the pincers had pressed her nose up against the glass of one of the windows, looking down onto the planet below. She turned around when she heard Hayes and the others enter the room.

Catra felt a familiar tough grip coming up behind her, and she weakly attempted to struggle, still stunned, still keeping her eyes locked on what she was seeing. "Scorpia…"

Scorpia beamed at her. "Catra, come look!" she dragged Catra over to the window, showing her the planet below. "Isn't it...isn't it…?"

"Get off me…!"

Scorpia sniffed, "Oh, but Catra, it's just so...it's so big! But it's so tiny...how could it all be so small at the same time? It's like...like a mote in a sunbeam!"

She made an odd squealing sound, then seized Catra in a giant hug.

"Scorpia!" Catra protested. It was the second time Scorpia had hugged her in two days.

Hayes turned to Matthias and spoke in a low voice, "So I'm thinking we are going to play this the standard route, just explain the situation to them and see what happens."

Matthias nodded, "I agree. There is really no dancing about it. No matter how much you try."

Hayes groaned, and rubbed his eyes.

"Captain?"

"I'm fine...just tired."

They turned toward the group, and Catra managed to struggle out of Scorpia's grip.

Glimmer whirled about, "How are you doing that?" she demanded, "That can't be real. We can't really be…"

"We're in _space_!" Bow nearly squealed.

Glimmer looked out the window again, moving her head this way and that, "It's got depth, and...and...it's...Oh, it's not like that holodeck! But...it...it can't be real!...is it?"

"I would say step outside to see, but I really wouldn't recommend that," Hayes said, "That _is_ your world down there."

Glimmer was almost tempted to see if she could teleport beyond the windows, just for a moment, to see if Bow's science fiction stories had been true. That would be beyond proof that they were up here, and it wasn't an elaborate conspiracy.

It wouldn't be pleasant if it was real, but it could prove once and for all…

The same sensation that hit her in the cargo bay whenever she tried to leave it hit again. It was like someone had put a brick wall in her head, angled toward the hull of this vessel. But at the same time, it wasn't hostile, it was an innate instinct. _Don't_, it said, _don't try_. _Very bad idea._

Adora finally got to her feet. She turned around slowly, and walked up to the captain. Everything seemed to fall into place in her head.

"Captain Hayes…" she cleared her throat, shaking her head a little and regaining composure, "Are your people the First Ones?"

At those words, the others slowly began turning away from the magnificent sight, focusing their eyes on him.

The atmosphere seemed to shift, and Hayes exchanged a glance with Matthias, "Have we got the holographic display set up yet?"

"Yes sir."

"Good." he looked back at the group, "Okay, all of you, this is going to be much harder to explain than the whole starship thing. I'm gonna need you all to listen. I will explain everything, you just have to not try and attack any of us or try to escape. At least, don't try anything until I'm done. Can we do that?"

Scorpia, Catra, and Adora all immediately nodded, while the others looked apprehensive. The tech girl perked her head up suddenly, "Ooh, are we gonna do a slideshow?"

Hayes blinked, "Uh...sort of."

"Excellent! I always need more knowledge!" She glanced around, "Where's your projector…?"

Matthias pointed, "We've got a screen, it's over there. We've got a bunch of tables for you."

The guards didn't move, but the officers got the sense their presence had an influence on things. The group found their way to a pair of tables, sitting down in a similar manner to the cargo bay. Most of the princesses occupied one table, while the Horde officers sat at the other. Entrapta sat with them, though it may have been more trying to find a seat than any particular choice, she was still focused on her pad of paper.

Hayes sucked in a breath. _Hoo boy_…

Matthias went over to a display built into the wall, and input commands.

Up popped an insignia, or rather a seal. It was a round blue field of stars, flanked by olive branches. Hayes put his hands behind his back.

"As we said before, we represent the United Federation of Planets. It was founded in 2161 by United Earth, Vulcan, the Andorian Empire, and Tellar. It comprises more than 150 species over hundreds of light years, with the four founding races being humanity, the Vulcans, Andorians, and the Tellarites. We are a fully integrated interstellar alliance bonded together in mutual defense and friendship."

"'Federation of Planets'?" Entrapta asked, "Do you mean…?"

Hayes nodded, "Yes, there are other planets. Yours is not the only one."

Glimmer furrowed her brow, leaning forward in interest. Some of the other rebels did the same thing.

Matthias made as if to say something, but Hayes took a breath, "Your planet revolves around a sun, along with a dozen or so other planets. Those stars you see in the sky are each a sun, of a dozen types, with planets, moons, and all sorts of things going around them. Those solar systems, billions of them, billions of stars, and even more planets, revolve around a center core to form a galaxy, of which there are billions. We represent a tiny, tiny, _tiny_ fraction of the universe."

Their expressions ranged from "world shattered" to "eh not quite a shocker" to "huh".

And Entrapta was simply nodding.

He motioned with his hand, and Matthias hit a control. An image of a globe appeared, but different from Etheria just out the windows. It was green and blue, but with much different shapes of continents.

"This is Earth, where all human beings originated. I expect most of you have ancestors there. I'm from upstate New York. Matthias here is from Oklahoma, though his species comes from Gornar."

"Broken Bow. 3rd generation immigrant," Matthias said, smiling a little and trying not to show any teeth.

"What does this have to do with us?" Catra asked.

Not looking away from the group, Hayes motioned again. Another planet appeared, "This is Cait, or Feresa by its inhabitants. Force Captain Catra, do you recognize it?"

Catra didn't even look at the image, "should I?"

"It's the Caitian homeworld."

She still looked at him, "So?"

Hayes looked confused. He knew they'd probably forgotten home, but she didn't even seem to react to the name of the species, "Caitians come from there. It's likely where some of your ancestors come from."

There were mutters among the natives, as they absorbed the concept.

Catra finally looked at the planet, "Huh, how about- wait, what do you mean 'some'?"

Hayes furrowed his brow, "You're half-human. Or at least, you have significant human ancestry."

The young woman blinked, looking down at herself, "Um...do you have an eyesight problem? As in actual blindness?"

The others looked confused as well, some smiling a little.

Matthias hit a control, and pulled up an image of a creature that looked similar to Catra, but was far more feline.

"This is a Caitian," the Gorn explained, and pointed at the face, "Notice the differences in the jaw and nose. Unlike this example, the force captain has a protuberant nose bridge, and a human jaw."

He gestured to Catra, "Your jaw is much shorter than a Caitian's, and your skull is taller. You also have the human forehead, it's angled much differently from a Caitian's."

Hayes looked at Catra, "We haven't done any tests on you, so we actually aren't certain of your ancestry. There have been some highly-regulated genetic experiments done, so you might not even _have_ any Caitian ancestry, it might…"

"There have been some _what_?" Catra asked, her gaze narrowing.

"Captain?" Matthias asked.

Hayes nodded, "sooner than we'd thought. Ah well…"

Matthias changed the display again.

Another image of a planet appeared on the screen, slowly spinning. Readouts and lines appeared, indicating various areas and environmental conditions. It was Etheria this time, but different.

The audience noticed some odd details, compared to the planet below them. For one thing, there were not only arrows pointing at the surface, but at small circles around the planet. For another, when one side passed into night, certain areas _glowed_.

On the planet at present, there were some glowing areas, but fewer than ten.

There were dozens on this image, scattered all across the globe.

Hayes gestured to the image, "This is Etheria. Obviously. The image was taken four years ago, in 2374, Stardate 51003.7. By our calendars, the year is currently 2378, Stardate 55836.7."

The observers glanced at each other, muttering among themselves.

"Now, about a hundred years ago, a Federation colony was set up here. The planet was a barren lifeless rock. It was a relatively small colony, and the planet is not well-known. It was terraformed - we transformed the planet to make it suitable for habitation - making it what it is today."

Entrapta looked up, "only a hundred years? Then you can't be the First Ones! Their colonization was over a thousand years ago! But...wait a minute, your technology matches them too closely…"

Adora spoke up, addressing the room at large, "Entrapta's right. I ran into a First One computer, recently. It told me the First Ones came centuries ago, not decades."

Her expression had some disappointment, but there was some apprehension as well, "...so, are you the First Ones or not?"

To the shock of the audience, this did not phase Hayes. There was no stumbling over words, no obvious sign of being caught in a lie. Though that meant very little. He could just be a good actor.

"We _are_ the First Ones, if we understand that term correctly," he replied, "but the answer is a little complicated. You have experienced time dilation. A difference in elapsed time between two observers."

Everyone still seemed confused. Bow raised his hand, "Um...excuse me, but...what?"

Hayes expected this, "Say one of you fell down a well. It takes time for the rescuers to come down and get you. Now, think about any time when you have been in distress and time has acted funny for you. Don't things seem to take longer than they actually do sometimes? Now, going with the well metaphor, to the rescuers, it's been a few minutes, but to the person in the well, it _feels_ like hours. Now, imagine that instead of being just a feeling, it's real."

They looked at him with somewhat confused expressions, some with outright disbelief.

Catra was leaning back in her chair, her arms crossed. It was doubtful she'd been more than half listening. She interrupted, "This colony of yours...if you're telling the truth, where is it?"

Hayes was confused, "What?"

"If what you're saying is true," she repeated, growling, "where is your colony?"

Hayes grimaced, and scratched his head, "that's what I've been trying to explain. _You're_ the colonists. Your ancestors were Federation colonists, who were trapped on this world a thousand years ago. However, to the outside world, it's been only four years. Etheria disappeared in 2374. It's currently 2378."


	3. Chapter 3

One could have heard a pin drop in the room.

Hayes' words had the audience in stunned silence.

He gazed about the small crowd before him, a little unsure of what to do next. He blinked slowly for a moment, then shook his head to clear it.

The captain glanced back at Matthias, who shrugged, and made a _go on_ gesture.

"Does...anyone...have...any questions?" he asked slowly.

Glimmer had a puzzled expression on her face. She put her hands together, then spoke in her best formal voice, "Captain, if you don't mind me saying so…"

"What exactly are you taking?" Catra demanded, sitting straight up, "What kind of story is this? You come from outer space, okay, let's say I buy that. Then you tell us stuff about...about other planets, and that you're the First Ones, and only four years have actually passed in the last thousand years, or something? Seriously, have you had your head stuck in a factory chimney for a month?"

"Catra-!" Adora started.

"Shut up, Adora!" The other girl snapped.

"You shut it!" Glimmer snapped back.

"Make me!"

"Uh...Captain Hayes?" Bow spoke up politely, "I think what we all mean is...what are you talking about?"

"Time dilation has been thought of for decades, but there's barely any theory on the subject!" Entrapta commented, but then looked thoughtful, "Though I suppose if you're the First Ones…and you _do_ know about other planets..."

Hayes groaned, "Do you people know about time travel? Being able to travel back to the past, or to the future, like you move with a vehicle?"

The still-arguing faces turned back toward him.

Catra furrowed her brow, and grinned a little, "...Duh?"

"Catra, don't be rude!" Adora hissed.

"Don't tell her what to do!" Scorpia growled.

"All of you, pipe down!" Hayes said loudly, his voice carrying and making everyone feel more attentive.

The side chatter stopped immediately.

"_Thank you_…" he muttered, "So that's good, we're all familiar with time travel? Okay, so, here's what one might consider a form of time travel. My metaphor of the well- we're the rescuers in that context. For the rescuers, it's only been a few minutes, but for the person inside the well, it feels much longer. Now, you're the person inside in that metaphor. While us getting to you has taken a short time relatively speaking, for you the elapsed time is much longer. For us, four years. For you, a thousand years. Time has been sped up inside the bubble, to the point it seems the outside world is standing still. Or moving very, very slowly."

With a little more explanation, the group eventually came to a relative understanding of time dilation.

"So if what you say is true, how did it happen?" Adora asked.

Hayes nodded, satisfied they were getting back on track.

"Four years ago, the Federation was engaged in open warfare with an empire known as the Dominion. We were losing, badly, and territory was falling rapidly despite our best efforts. A lot of the campaigns at this point in the war were holding actions and forced withdrawals. Etheria was a small colony, on the opposite side of our territory from the enemy. That reason gave it heavier ground-based defenses than usual, since ground fortifications are a lot cheaper than starships. It was home to a scientific research outpost, with some experimental tech. One day, perimeter sensors picked up a fleet we couldn't identify on its way. The garrison officer panicked, fearing it was a Dominion fleet. She activated an experimental defense system being tested on the planet. It was a time dilation field designed to conceal the planet in a subspace bubble. It would speed up time inside the bubble, while time outside passed at a slower rate."

"Excuse me...What's subspace?" Scorpia asked, raising her claw.

"It's a hypothetical region of the universe that's distinctive from, yet co-existent with normal space," Entrapta replied, "I've studied papers on the subject, but no one has been able to actually find evidence of it."

"Thank you…uh...um...I'm sorry, I don't know your name," Hayes said, wincing.

"I'm Entrapta. Are you saying subspace is real?"

"Essentially, yes, though I do not have the time or knowledge to explain it in full."

"So what's the point of speeding up the time in the bubble?" Adora asked, "Wouldn't...wait, I don't think I get it. How would that help defend the planet?"

"The idea was that it would speed up time only for the people inside the bubble. Say you and an enemy soldier turned a corner at the same time. Normally, you'd have only a split second to react, but what this field does would increase that amount of time for you to react by speeding up time, but only for you. You could eat a sandwich then still have time to shoot them without risk. Metaphors aside, this would allow us days or weeks of reaction time to an entire fleet."

Adora noticed Catra's ears twitching out of the corner of her eye. That same twitch she saw first during munitions class when they were eight. And every other time she saw unsupervised munitions.

_I do _not _want to deal with that again. It took us forever to find the pin for that grenade..._

"Unfortunately, the defense system wasn't finished, and was activated unnecessarily. The fleet wasn't Dominion. It was another alien race. The Gercid. They've got some interesting toys that make them a minor threat, and a bad attitude to match. We only recently encountered them, and they're way more primitive than we are. About a decade ago, one of our explorer ships, the USS _Enterprise-D_, had a run-in with them. They had to beat feet quickly when they realized they didn't want us around."

Matthias took over, "During the war, the Gercid saw the Federation losing to the Dominion, and figured they'd be next on the list. So they wanted some of our tech to give themselves a leg up so that when the Dominion finally came for them they could stop them. But they never thought to ask us. They planned to raid what appeared to be a lightly defended colony to grab databases, tech, and slaves to show them how to work it all. Unfortunately, that was Etheria, with the subspace bubble. While their ships are inferior to ours, there were an awful lot of them, and we had only a handful of our own in the system at the time. There was a miscommunication, and the garrison commander assumed they were Dominion. Despite the protests of the local commodore, she activated the system to hide the planet. It wasn't ready. We didn't even really know if it should have been used."

Hayes put his hands behind his back, and walked to the windows, looking out at the planet below.

"Nothing on this scale, with this much damage, was supposed to happen. This is the biggest disaster in colony history since Tarsus IV. We thought decades, at _worst_, had passed inside the bubble. It's a huge humanitarian crisis."

He looked back at them, "For what it's worth, I'm sorry this happened. I lost friends to this blasted experiment."

Hayes gestured to Matthias, who brought up an image of Etheria in its 2374 configuration. The feed pulled out, a ring appearing from its sides. It was rotating around a large white sphere.

They took a moment to realize it was the sun.

Several other rings with planets attached appeared, either larger or smaller than Etheria's rings. Some were closer to the sun, while others were further out. The planets were of varying sizes as well.

"It's a solar system!" Glimmer said, "My aunt showed us models! Adora, Bow, you remember!"

"It has those planets like the ones my dads showed," Bow added, "It looks familiar…"

"That's because it's _our _solar system!" Entrapta exclaimed, "I've seen old models, but never anything with this detail!"

A variety of blue arrows and cubes were spread out across the map. Most of the cubes tended to be orbiting the planets, while some were seemingly in deep space. The arrows were oriented trying to intercept a large number of red arrows.

Matthias narrated, "Their fleet first jumped into the system. The colony had extreme electronic emission control protocols active, for both sensors and communications, so they communicated with the ships in the area through unconventional free-space optical communications, and utilized passive sensors."

The red arrows, the Gercid, moved in toward the sun, and Etheria. Some of the blue arrows, Starfleet ships, scrambled to intercept, while others moved away as quickly as they could.

Hayes glanced at the group, noting Entrapta had her hand raised. "That means we let as few electronic signals get out as possible. Our communications were through laser-links that can't be intercepted in the same way radio can."

"What do you mean 'passive sensors'?" Entrapta asked.

"What does he mean 'sensors'?" Glimmer asked.

Hayes hesitated, but luckily Matthias stepped in.

"We use electronic devices that can see beyond the visible light spectrum like you and I can see. They are able to 'see' over vast distances, with much greater detail and accuracy than our eyes can. We call them 'sensors'. However, this makes stealth and surprise difficult if both sides have them, because both of us can detect when the enemy is using those sensors, and can find them. It's like a bunch of people running around in a dark warehouse with a gun and a flashlight, and trying not to get shot by someone else. You could turn on a flashlight to see where everyone is, but then they know where you are. Normally, it isn't a problem, but this was a...shall we say, unique situation."

"Thank you, commander," Hayes nodded, "They were unable to get a positive ID on the ships due in part to these precautions, and communications between Etheria's command center and the first ship to make contact with the enemy were destroyed before they could report."

A Starfleet vessel approached the Gercid fleet on the display, exchanging fire with them in a flurry of little flashes.

"By the time one of our ships was able to identify the Gercid for what they were, it was too late. The bubble activated, and the planet has been lost, up until a few weeks ago. A task force has been stationed here, rotating out every few months, waiting for it to come back."

"They were supposed to wait a certain amount of time, then deactivate the bubble once the enemy was gone. We didn't understand why they didn't turn it off. We defeated what was left of the Gercid fleet, and as time went on, the Dominion War ended in 2375. We believed only decades had passed, at worst…"

_Or so we were told…_ Hayes thought as he exchanged a quick glance with Matthias.

"Our task force was supposed to wait here until the planet returned, and offer any and all relief supplies. Unfortunately, with how long it's been, that plan has been FUBAR'd six ways to Sunday. Our job now is to talk to all of you, negotiate with your governments, stop the war, and figure out what to do next."

"So what happened to the...Gercid ships?" Glimmer asked, suspicion still in her voice, "Where are they? What do they look like?"

Hayes gestured to Matthias. The gorn pulled up a profile of a tall grey-skinned being, with pointed ears and a short tuft of hair on his head.

"This is one of the Gercid."

Gasps, and then murmurs ran through the audience. Catra's jaw dropped and her eyes went wide. Her tail went completely limp.

Scorpia scratched her head, blinking rapidly, "I knew...they came from...somewhere _else_, but this…?"

Entrapta furrowed her brow, and started scribbling something down.

Catra slapped her arm, "Did you know about this?!"

"Sort of! I've been busy! Keeping all of you alive has been taking up much of my time outside of keeping our projects running!"

Mermista was wide-eyed, but still tried to keep her face neutral, "whoa."

Perfuma and Bow both had their jaws hanging, one could almost hear them creaking.

Glimmer's surprised expression drew into a scowl, and her hands curled.

Frosta was...impassive.

"Hordak is an...an _alien_?" Adora choked.

Hayes nodded, "Lord Hordak, or Grand Admiral Hordak of the Gercid Imperial Navy, AKA 'The Horde', was leading the attack on Etheria before the planet disappeared. He led the Gercid 2nd Fleet."

Matthias pulled up an image from high in the sky above the Fright Zone. Specifically, the center of it, a small city in the middle of the desert. Well, it _had_ been a small city. It had been heavily industrialized, with factories belching smoke and trucks moving too and fro with supplies. Grids of green stood out against the tan of the sand, agriculture in an arid environment.

A white outline was drawn around a long rectangular building, one of the biggest in the area.

More aerial photos appeared of similar buildings, from different parts of Horde territory.

Hayes pointed at the rectangular buildings, "each one of those covers one of the Gercid ships that have fallen into Horde hands. Or rather, _back_ into their hands. Our sensor data is sketchy, but it seems a bunch of his ships managed to make it into orbit, and their engines…"

He hesitated, and grimaced.

Without waiting for a cue, Matthias pulled up a different image, of a vehicle similar to the _Belleau Wood_ in basic silhouette. It rested on a gridded plane. A bubble had been formed around it. In front of it, the grid seemed to shrink, while behind it the grid stretched.

The Gorn spoke, "The distances between stars are immense, and require special means of travel in order to reach them within a reasonable timeframe. The Gercid and the Federation, along with many other nations, utilize what is known as a warp drive. It's too complex to get into the details right now, but suffice it to say it makes the distance between the ship and the target smaller by warping space, hence warp drive."

Hayes nodded, "They used their warp drives to get in close to the planet. The subspace bubble system warped space in a different way from the warp drives, and it didn't react well to their engines still powered up and warping space. To us, it's been four years. To you, it's been a thousand. To them...well, it depends. We're still trying to figure out what happened when Etheria disappeared. From what we've been able to piece together, time sped up for them, but not as much as the planet's surface. We have found several impact sites that are hundreds of years old in some cases, and decades in others. They've been slowly entering your timeframe. Hordak's party, or what was left of them, showed up about 20-30 years ago, judging by radio intercepts."

The screen switched back to an even higher view of the whole continent, displaying holdings of the Horde, Rebellion, and other parties with greater detail than even Bright Moon's strategic map. It highlighted several points, above which symbols appeared. Some were spinning images of Gercid ships, while others looked like ruins.

"Admiral Hordak's forces are intent on defeating the Rebellion, but have been after their own wrecks and any Federation facilities they can find. We believe the admiral is attempting to gather any soldiers that might have survived the crashes, along with supplies, technology, and ship parts. He is using the people under his control as a virtual slave force to do his bidding and gain control of the planet. We've speculated that he is attempting to repair one or more of his ships to escape with as much technology as he can, and perhaps a few slaves for his empire. Another possibility, he may be trying to build the planet up to a certain point that it can hold off the Federation. It is also likely not one or the other, but rather he began with the first, but the power he held had him transition to the second. Or vice versa."

Catra felt a low growl in her throat at the words of this man, her hands balling into fists. It couldn't be true. Sure, the Horde had some rough spots, but they weren't all bad, right? It was better than the alternative! Hordak…

He'd sent them to die.

Didn't matter.

He valued Entrapta.

Didn't matter, did it?

The world didn't care about her feelings. All that mattered was doing her job.

"Well, it's not a ship, actually," Entrapta spoke up, "It's actually a-"

Catra slammed her fist against the table, making the other two jump, "Not _now_, Entrapta!"

"What?" Hayes asked, looking over, "He's not building a ship? Then how's he planning to escape?"

"He's _not_ planning to escape," Catra snarled, "Entrapta, don't say a _word_!"

_As if that freak could even figure out how to get out of an empty room..._

Glimmer shot to her feet, and stalked over to the Horde officer's table. She violently brought her hands down, making all three jump this time.

"We tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen! None of you would! Now look! The First Ones are back, and we're right! We were right all along, and what he says confirms it! We were right! Look at who you're serving!"

Catra jumped to her feet, "Stop talking, sparkles! Or else!"

Glimmer glared the short distance up at her, a humorless smug smile on her face, "Or else what, you'll call your boss? Oh, wait, he's won't care! He's _using_ you! He doesn't care about any of you!"

"I said shut up, sparks!" Catra snapped, her claws out.

"Glimmer...!" Bow and Adora cautioned at the same time, stepping up to try and stop them.

Catra glared at Adora, stepping between her and Glimmer, "oh, don't you dare, Adora! I want to hear what the runt has to say!"

"Says the cat who is shorter than anyone in here except _me_?!" Glimmer said with a hint of a sneer.

Catra rounded back on her, and settled into a warning combat stance, "Yeah, so I can call you a runt, _runt_!"

"Uh, Catra…?" Scorpia asked warningly, gesturing toward the guards and stepping forward herself.

Catra stepped away from her in turn, her eyes still fixed on Glimmer, "Back off, Scorpia! You don't want to get hurt!"

"Oh, it'll just be you hurting!" Glimmer snarled.

With a cloud of sparkles left behind, she disappeared.

Catra was abruptly hit in the back with a fist, and she whirled about, only to find another cloud of sparkles.

Glimmer popped behind her and hit her again.

When she appeared a third time, Catra was ready. She tackled Glimmer before she could hit her, and instinctively the princess tried to teleport out of Catra's grip.

Something messed her up this time somehow, she couldn't quite place it. Something about this foe was different.

Glimmer and Catra both disappeared, then reappeared by the kitchen area of the mess hall, with both of them sprawling once the sparkles had settled. It was a relatively small area, with an elevated kitchen counter separating some of it from the rest of the room, and walls isolating the cooking area.

The respite was only brief, Catra got to her feet and dove at Glimmer, leaning against the counter. She ducked away, picked up a frying pan from a rack on the wall, and took a swing at Catra.

The force captain dodged it, and managed to swat the weapon out of the other girl's hand. She tackled Glimmer and raised a hand with extended claws.

Glimmer teleported out from under her and appeared near the closest table, then grabbed a chair by the legs.

A Starfleet security guard chose that moment to try interfering, and managed to yank the chair out of Glimmer's grip.

The weight of the chair made it difficult to respond when she kicked him in the stomach.

Catra took the opportunity to steal the officer's phaser when he collapsed, raising it to fire at Glimmer.

"Oh no!" Glimmer gasped out, and popped out again just in time to avoid the phaser blast, allowing it to scorch the wall.

Catra immediately ducked and swept her legs behind her, knocking Glimmer off her feet.

"Can't be too predictable, your worship!" Catra snarled, and kicked her. She raised her leg for another hit, only for Glimmer to teleport again, this time to her side.

She took a swing, and missed. Once again, Catra tackled her, and once again the unusual effect hit them. Both teleported across the room to near Matthias' wall mounted display.

Neither were in a fit state anymore. Glimmer leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground, panting heavily, while Catra fell to her knees and coughed heavily.

Despite their exhaustion, both struggled to their feet, and Catra raised the phaser she held with a death grip.

Suddenly someone gripped Glimmer around the shoulders, and two others grabbed Catra by the arms.

One of the Starfleet security guard was trying to restrain Catra, while Commander Matthias pried the phaser out of her hands.

Glimmer kicked and struggled, hitting whoever was holding her in the legs.

"Ow! Glimmer, quit moving!" Bow said, his voice wavering as he continued trying to hold his friend.

"Bow, what are you doing?!" She demanded, her struggles briefly subsiding upon recognizing him, "let me go!"

"Not until you calm down!" He said loudly, dragging her back.

Catra was being held against the wall by the Starfleet personnel, struggling, snarling, and spewing curses at them, Glimmer, and anyone else within eyesight.

"Force Captain, please settle down!" Matthias requested, holding Catra's arm behind her, "this isn't helping anyone!"

"She started it, lizard!" Catra barked, "I'm just giving her what she wanted!"

_Where's Scorpia?_ Catra wondered in the back of her mind, _Why isn't she helping?_

They pulled her off the wall to face the room at large. Several tables had been thrown about, a few chairs were smashed, and a spread of ice projectiles were embedded in the wall.

Frosta was being held by Perfuma and Mermista, but was settling down rapidly.

Entrapta and three security guards were completing the task of restraining Scorpia, who was nursing her eye and her tail.

She glared daggers at Adora, who herself was holding her right arm with a slash mark across it, under a tear in her uniform sleeve. She also had several bruises on her face.

Another security guard took over for Matthias, pulling Catra off the wall and toward her fellow Horde officer.

Captain Hayes stood where he had started, his hand rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Bow released Glimmer, his voice squeaking, "Captain, I am so sorry about this-!"

"It's fine, it's fine," Hayes said, struggling to avoid gritting his teeth, "it's clear we're not going to get anywhere else today."

He looked at all of their guests, "it seems it's time for proper guest quarters. We kept you in the cargo bay because we weren't sure how long it would take for you to adjust to what we told you. Commander Matthias?"

"Sir?"

"The VIP quarters on Deck 4 are ready, aren't they?"

When Matthias answered in the affirmative, Hayes pointed at the Starfleet medic who'd been standing in the room since they entered, and had largely avoided the carnage, "Doc, check them over, get Princess Adora and Force Captain Scorpia in particular."

"Oh, it's no trouble, I'm fine!" Scorpia said with her usual cheer. Her eyes betrayed a hint of suspicion though. Perhaps it was the new doctor that was the problem.

Beside her Catra had been standing, having recovered her stoic stance. She suddenly made an odd face, and put a hand to her mouth.

"Oh, Catra, are _you_ okay?" Scorpia asked.

Catra held her stomach with one hand and leaned against Scorpia with the other.

"yup, fine…" she groaned, "give me a minute…"

Adora furrowed her brow, but then a sympathetic yet annoyed expression took over, "Oh no…"

"Adora, shut up." Catra grunted.

"Really? Now?" The other girl said, ignoring her words, "Okay, deep breaths…"

"Adora, shut up!"

Scorpia took Catra by the shoulders, looking between the two, "what's going on? Are you alright?"

"She's fine, she just-" Adora stopped and winced, "uh, hold on, Scorpia, I wouldn't stand there if-"

"_Adora shut the_-!"

Catra suddenly doubled over and left a nasty stain on the floor. And all over Scorpia's boots.

The taller girl didn't seem to care, she held Catra's hair out of the way, and rubbed her back.

"Yeah, hairball, happens every once in a while…" Adora explained.

"I said..._shut up_-!" Catra moaned, a low cat-like yowling sound accompanying her words before she puked again.

"No, that's no hairball. That's teleport spell travel sickness." Glimmer said, studying the scene with a focused expression as though she were watching a sport.

"I never did that!" Adora exclaimed, "is that how most people react?!"

"Eh, maybe you've got a stronger stomach," Glimmer said, smirking at Catra, who glared at her out of the corner of her eye.

Bow stood beside them, and it was his turn to bury his face in his hands, "guys, can we _not_ turn this into a spectator sport?!"

"Thank you!" Scorpia called out.

Hayes shook his head, and looked at the medic again, "...doc, make sure the force captain is okay. Someone call maintenance, and then when we're all done, escort them to deck 4. Tomorrow, we'll get back to it."

When the guests were finally gone, Matthias dismissed those guards who did not go with them.

He noticed Hayes standing in front of the icicles in the wall, shaking his head. The captain glanced around at vents along the ceiling and floor. His eyes caught the puke stain on the carpet, and he just groaned.

Matthias walked over following his gaze.

"Ah, engineering's gonna be _pissed_…" the XO commented quietly.

"_Engineering_ is going to be pissed?!" Hayes demanded, "_I'm_ pissed! She put god damn _icicles_ through the bulkhead! Poor Devil Dog…"

"Your ship _is_ a carrier, sir. She can take it."

"That's not the point!" Hayes huffed, "Man I don't even know what that girl did to life support…"

"Probably nothing sir. She took some moisture out of the air. It's just a little less humid now. Give it a minute." Matthias grinned a little, "It feels rather nice, actually. What's the problem?"

"Yeah, yeah, remind me how your people's arctic expeditions went?"

"How did _yours_? Captain Franklin and all his men?"

"Smartass," Hayes scratched his nose, then looked at his hand with a growl of frustration, "And great. My nose is bleeding on top of things."

He glanced around as he pulled a handkerchief out of a sleeve pocket, "Some wet navy carriers used to have bars on them. Heck, I think some Naval Patrol ships still have them. How come we don't get any?"

"The regs are still caught up in committee, like they were the last time you asked."

"I know, I know, only vessels over a certain size…Picard gets everything...Then do you know where my good scotch is?"

Matthias blushed, or at least did the Gorn equivalent, "We're still looking for it after I...uh..."

Hayes smirked, "Absconded with it and hid it? I swear you took it off the ship! It's nowhere to be found!"

"I'm sure it'll turn up soon, sir. I'm not that subtle. Even when intoxicated."

"Subtle enough to hide my freaking scotch…!"

Hayes huffed, and looked at the vomit stains, "get Reed or someone to sample that stuff. It's not invasive on any of the kids, so we can actually test it."

"Sir, do we really want to risk a lawsuit, or a diplomatic incident?"

"Damn... I'll think about it after I've gotten some sleep. And tomorrow, we're getting Emerson to help. I don't care if he's just the shipboard counselor, he's all we got."

Hayes took a deep breath, and leaned against a nearby table. "Woof…"

"Archer, are you alright?"

"I'm really tired." He dabbed at more blood that dripped onto his uniform.

Matthias rolled his eyes, "Computer, when was Captain Hayes last in his quarters?"

His combadge replied politely, "_0900 yesterday._"

"Alright, c'mon, you're going to bed," the Gorn said, pulling Hayes to his feet, "That's half the trouble here."

"Freaking teenagers puking all over my ship…"

Matthias chuckled softly, "Don't worry sir, we'll take care of it. We can't have you collapsing in front of everyone, it's bad for morale."

**XXXXX**

The Etherians were brought to another turbolift, and to another deck. They were split up again, this time by faction. The Horde people went one way, the rebels in the other direction.

A human officer, one of those with the red turtlenecks, was waiting for the group at an intersection. Around the right corner was a small portion of hallway with a dead end, only four or five doors to either side.

The woman smiled cheerfully, "Greetings, Etherians! I'm Lieutenant JG Alis Llewellyn, your...uh..." She scratched her head for a second, "I'm sorry...liaison! I'm a liaison! Yes, I'm here to provide whatever you need for your stay on our little carrier. Just say the word, and I'm there." Llewellyn winced, upon seeing the gears turning in the teenager's heads, "please, no sarcastic or witty remarks. I've been up for the last twenty hours."

The group just stood there for a moment. This officer was a bit twitchy.

Mermista blew a lock of hair out of her face, and grunted, "Been there."

"Uh...thank you, lieutenant Jay-Gee…" Glimmer began awkwardly.

Llewellyn laughed, "oh, sorry! It's just 'Lieutenant Llewellyn'. 'J.G.' is 'junior grade'. Call me lieutenant, or Llewellyn, or... whatever. Shall I show you your quarters?"

She led the way into one of the darkened VIP suites.

"Lights," she called out, and turned around as she walked, lifting both arms with the lights.

The stateroom was small, but not too cramped. It was massive by sea-going ship standards, with tables, couches, a few chairs, all the comforts of home. A row of windows were along the opposite side of the room.

"These are our best VIP quarters. We've got a room for each of you, if a bit cramped, in this suite and the ones in this part of the ship. This section of the ship has been reserved for you folks specifically, so you don't need to worry about the crew bothering you."

"Where are the...the Horde people?" Adora asked.

Llewellyn pointed at the wall, "they're on the other side of the ship. We kept you guys separate for your own safety, considering...well, you know."

"That was very considerate of you." Bow said politely.

"Thank you, though I'm not going to take credit for it," Llewellyn replied, "in advance, I apologise if we can't make everything to your liking. The _Belleau Wood_ has lots of facilities for VIPs, but can't do everything. She's a carrier first, not a cruise liner."

Frosta stepped away from the group, her hands crossed behind her back and her coat tucked under her arm. She walked to the window.

Below them, Etheria had turned, and so had they. The stars glowed far brighter without the sun to interfere. The large dark shape of the planet below was outlined by the sunlight slowly disappearing over the horizon.

"It is satisfactory for what it is," she said.

"Better than the cargo bay…" Glimmer muttered.

"The bathrooms have full baths, and sonic showers. They operate on voice command normally, but there's some auxiliary manual controls." Llewellyn walked over to a nearby door, making it open automatically and gesturing inside.

Adora stuck her head inside and glanced around, "Did you say a 'sonic' shower? What is that?"

Llewellyn winced, "Sorry, slang. They're actually hydrosonic showers, sonic is just easier to say. They use high pressure steam jets and acoustic generators to create a film of water over the body, which is then vibrated for the cleaning function. It reduces water usage immensely, and is very relaxing."

"Whatever it is," Adora said slowly, "it's a shower? A real honest to goodness shower?"

"Well, it's not a conventional one, obviously…"

"I don't care. Whatever it is I'll take it!"

Llewellyn ducked her head and hid a smile as Adora bolted inside the bathroom and shut the door (after a try or two with the buttons). She knew what it was like to be greeted with a shower after not having one for days.

The others finally moved from the entryway, and started looking around.

Mermista immediately took a seat in one of the armchairs, her leg up on one side with her arms crossed.

Glimmer had her arms folded and walked around, looking at things but generally seemed disinterested.

Perfuma stepped over to a small alcove set into the wall. It was about thirty centimeters in height, with a glowing white panel on the bottom of it and a series of glowing blue shapes set against the back. A control panel and display was mounted to the wall beside it, under a label that read "_FOOD SERVICE"_.

"Excuse me, uh... lieutenant? How do we get food?" She asked, "Do we send for someone with this?"

Llewellyn smiled again, "No need. We've got something just as good!"

She walked over to stand next to Perfuma. "This is one of the greatest inventions the federation has ever produced. It's called a replicator."

She pushed a button, and a large menu appeared on the display.

"It's a matter-energy converter. It takes raw materials, such as wheat, meat, rice, or what have you, converts it into energy, and then changes it back into whatever form you asked for. It can't make all the materials on its own, but it can do a lot."

"Okay...what does that mean?" Perfuma asked, grinning sheepishly.

"It means whatever you want, you can ask for. For instance…Coffee, two sugars."

The machine beeped and let out a high pitched humming sound. A shimmering glowing shape appeared on the glowing white panel.

All the Etherians in the room immediately backed up, settling into combat posture. Bow pulled a desktop lamp out of its socket and raised it as a club. The bathroom door slid open and, half dressed, Adora stuck her head out, fists raised, a suspicious look on her face.

Llewellyn put up her hands, "it's alright! It's harmless!"

As she spoke the glow faded, and in its place was a silver mug with the Starfleet insignia on the side.

She picked it up, "See? Just coffee!" The lieutenant went to take a sip, but then immediately spat it right back in, "wait why did I order coffee? That'll keep me awake."

She put the cup back, "Computer, switch this to decaf!"

The replicator shimmered again, and Llewellyn drank from the cup again.

"See? It can create whatever food you want! It can also create other things, like tools, clothing, toys, uh...other examples I can't think of now. You have full access to the food system, and some of the others, there's a manual with all the options and stuff on the coffee table over there. Be very careful though, don't stick your hand in it or anything."

She managed to get them calmed down (Adora returning to the bathroom), and introduced them to more of the ship's amenities such as laundry machines, the sinks with unlimited clean water, the laptops, PADDs, and the ship's database.

A thought struck Glimmer abruptly, and she approached Llewellyn.

"Lieutenant, not to tell you how to do your job, but are you aware of Entrapta's love of tinkering? Your replicators seem to be pretty important, and...well, I'm sure you don't want her making a weapon or something."

Llewellyn kept up her diplomatic smile, "don't worry, your highness. We got reports on all of you. We've given her a laptop to take apart, and told her she could only mess around with that. I didn't expect the verbal warning to work, hence why my compatriot settling them into their quarters gave her said laptop. Should keep her busy for a while."

"You've certainly done your homework…" Glimmer commented, with something in her voice the Starfleet officer couldn't identify.

After another period of orienting to the stateroom, the group was properly settled, and Lieutenant Llewellyn asked, "was there anything else you needed? Otherwise, I'll leave you to it. Just talk to the guards outside if you need anything."

"Thanks, lieutenant," Bow said, "we appreciate it."

Llewellyn left the suite, still lit by mostly star light.

Bow watched the door close, then found the locking mechanism. He turned around and found the rest of the group as he expected; all gathered in a rough circle in the living room area.

Adora returned from the bathroom, looking refreshed, dressed in her old clothes. "So, what does everyone think?" Adora asked quietly.

Perfuma had a salad in her lap. She was the one who'd gotten the hang of the replicator the fastest, delighting in the way it could be asked to make the most exotic of foodstuffs.

"Well, they seem pretty First Ones-ee…" she said, swallowing.

"How do we know they're not faking it somehow?" Frosta asked, "for all their power, they seem like normal people."

"There's only one thing I can think of that can shoot beams of light like their guns, and that's She-ra," Adora said, "And maybe a few pieces of First Ones tech."

She reflected on the holograms they'd seen in Alwyn. Just normal people sending messages home, not gods.

"Yeah, but like we said, they could have stolen or salvaged the stuff." Glimmer pointed out, "they might seem like the First Ones, but they could just as easily be good fakes. They seemed shocked even by what little we can do up here."

"Didn't you just try to hit Catra with a frying pan yelling that they were the First Ones?"

"I was mad! Blame her!"

"Okay, so we're not sure they're the First Ones," Bow said, trying to avoid any trouble, "how can we be sure they are?"

Adora folded her arms, "I know some stuff Light Hope told me. I might be able to use that to check."

"Has anyone, I don't know, thought about what they actually want with us?" Mermista asked, "just saying, they're going to a lot of effort and not exactly explaining things."

"Well…" Adora started, but then frowned, "I...that's a good point. They never really explained that, did they?"

Her frown deepened, "...you all remember the weird... holodeck I was in? The dream state, and Swift Wind had to help find me? Um…"

"What?" Perfuma asked nervously.

Bow's eyes widened, "You're wondering if we're still in that one."

Adora screwed up her face, "You...could...say that…"

"Worried we're not real?" Mermista asked, her face completely deadpan.

Adora grimaced, "the one I was stuck in...it was able to replicate people from when I was young. People I probably don't remember well. So if was that accurate based on really poor memories, and you guys are way more recent…"

"Adora, that was _months _ago!" Glimmer said.

"We could've stumbled into one in the desert! Does _anyone_ remember them picking us up?"

"Okay, let's assume we're all real," Bow said slowly, "We'll test if they're the First Ones tomorrow, but we need to figure out what they want with us."

Adora grimaced, then leaned back in her chair.

"Well, according to them, we're lost colonists." Perfuma mumbled.

"How did they lose a colony?" Frosta asked.

"It matches up with what Light Hope told me," Adora said.

Bow nodded, "They want to restore the colony, I'm guessing. They want to stop the war, and help us."

"Yeah, but do we really want that?" Glimmer asked, "it's _our_ home! How do we know this federation isn't just the Horde from Outer Space? We should have a say in what happens!"

"That may be why they want us," Perfuma pointed out, "how many of us are influential where we live?"

"They grabbed people from both sides. Seems like something they might do if they were trying to stop everything." Mermista added.

"But why didn't they grab Hordak or my mom?" Glimmer asked, "wouldn't that have helped end the war? Whose side would they support, anyway, or would they just make us stop fighting and let the Horde keep all the land and resources they've taken?"

"They could just as easily keep us fighting, secretly supporting both sides as a means to keep us under control, or so that we'll annihilate each other and they can just move in," Frosta suggested, "They could be the First Ones, that's very possible. But how do we know that they are the same First Ones who supposedly colonized the planet?"

"How do we know they were telling the truth about the...what was it, time dilation?" Glimmer asked.

"That, and the colonization are actually the most likely to be true, out of everything we know." Adora said, "Light Hope did say Mara trapped us... somewhere, and we all saw the sky. Their technology hasn't changed much from what we've seen around Etheria."

"What does that matter? There are a lot of things that can stay the same for years." Perfuma inquired politely.

Adora shook her head, "technology doesn't work that way. Even when it looks the same, even a year can make a difference. We're always modifying and improving things. The tanks we used in the Horde might look identical to those we used ten years ago, but that's only the body. The insides have been continuously updated and modified. And then there's Entrapta's teletanks from the attack on Bright Moon…"

She paused for a moment, clearing her throat and reaching for a pitcher of water on the coffee table left by the lieutenant. Adora drank straight from the pitcher, making everyone try to hide their bemusement.

Glimmer smiled a little, but tilted her head, noticing the way Adora leaned forward and rubbed her back with a wince.

As if not noticing the others, Adora took a breath and kept talking, "the Horde, even with all our - their resources, we're - they're dwarfed by these people. I knew a few engineers who'd kill for so much of this kind of refined metal in one place. I don't even know what this stuff is!"

She stomped her foot against the deck for emphasis, "Seems like they'd advance pretty quickly. After a thousand years, we should have been ants compared to them. But their tech looks just like all the old facilities we've been in. So the time dilation might be true."

"But we still don't know for certain they're the First Ones," Glimmer pointed out, "Things might not have changed because these people are salvaging the old junk like Entrapta was."

"Whether they're the First Ones or whoever, shouldn't we figure out what they want? With the colony and stuff?" Mermista asked, "sure, focus on the mystery. That's cool. I'm sure they'll just wait for us to figure it out."

"I don't know if we'll be able to figure anything out now just by guessing," Bow said, shrugging, "maybe we should turn in for the night, sleep on everything, and listen to what Captain Hayes says tomorrow."

"He seems nice." Perfuma commented.

"Don't you say that about everyone?" Mermista asked.

"We're guests, aren't we? It's only polite."

"The lizard seemed very polite." Said Frosta, "the captain didn't seem quite as experienced."

"Commander Matthias is a Gorn," Adora corrected, then frowned, "I don't know what I think of Hayes. Not after what he and that...Andorian did to Catra."

"What was with that, anyway? She's so weird...any idea why she freaked out?"

Adora's didn't answer, and looked off to the side rubbing her chin.

Sensing something was wrong, Bow stepped in, "how about we figure things out in the morning? We're all tired, and we need rest. I can take the first watch."

"No, thanks Bow, I'll do it. You did it the other night anyway." Adora said.

Glimmer raised an eyebrow, but then wobbled a little on her feet and nodded, "Whoa...yeah…"

Bow put a hand on her shoulder, "You okay? That fight took a lot out of you, didn't it?"

"Could it be a proximity thing?" Adora asked, "You haven't had a recharge in a while, but could it be because you aren't on Etheria anymore?"

Glimmer shrugged, "haven't had any trouble before with distance. If it worked in the Fright Zone, it works anywhere."

She wobbled again, "...I'm gonna go find a bed to pass out on."

The others followed suit, grouping together in each suite for security.

When the last of them had disappeared, Adora jumped up from her seat and walked to the door.

It opened with a hiss. Adora stuck her head out, and looked up and down the hall. She spotted the guards sitting around a table at one end.

"Excuse me," she called out, walking over, "guards?"

A human 2nd class petty officer in a gold turtleneck got to her feet, putting her cards down, "yes ma'am? Is there a problem?"

"Oh, no problem really, I just want you to deliver a message to Ca- to... Force Captain Catra."

The guard nodded, "I think I can do that. So long as it doesn't require screaming abuse in someone's face."

Adora looked shocked, "who would ask that?!"

"Tellarite ambassadors have odd habits, ma'am."

"Ah, okay…" she shook her head, "just tell Catra one thing."

"Alright, shoot. Or tell me, or whatever."

"Tell her that whatever she does, she shouldn't use the showers. Tell her that exactly, and tell her it was from me, specifically."

The guard raised an eyebrow, "that's it? Nothing else?"

Adora smiled, "nope, that was it!"

"Okay…"

Adora retreated back into her quarters, leaving the petty officer to shrug and turn around.

One of the other of the guards shot to her feet, "Uh...you sure you want to pass that message on?"

"Yes I am, Crewman. What's the problem?"

A third guard looked up from his cards, "Oh, she's paranoid!"

"No I'm not! Petty Officer Ellis, you heard how weird that was! What if it's a...memetic hazard, or a cognitohazard? Some kind of sleeper agent trigger word?!"

"I told you to stop talking to the Starbase jarheads, Crewman," Ellis said, "those guys are _trying_ to give you nightmares."

The security officer rounded the corner and followed the winding corridor across the ship. After a few turns, it led to a mirror image of the Princess Alliance hallway.

Another security team was at the corner of this hallway as well. The 2nd class petty officer there noticed her approach.

He nodded at her, "Ellis."

"Lee. One of the kids wanted me to deliver a message to a friend of hers over here."

The man nodded, "Certainly. Would you really call them friends, though?"

"Ah, they're kids. You know how they can be. Probably some weird little spat. It's so adorable."

"You'd be surprised. Don't underestimate them, Ellis, kids are scarier than you think. Especially these ones."

"Yeah, yeah, 'have kids and you'll understand'...how old are yours again?"

Lee facepalmed, "Ellis, one of those kids is almost two and a half meters tall, the caitian broke one officer's wrist, and the sword girl gave _me_ a concussion."

"So you got beat up by a kid. My condolences."

"Don't say I didn't warn you, Ellis. Now kindly do what princess Adora asked you to do."

Ellis smirked at him, "Fine."

She walked over to the door, and pushed the doorbell button.

After a moment, the door hissed.

CPO Ellis found herself looking Force Captain Scorpia in the chest. She had to look up to see her face.

She also felt her jaw drop slightly.

"Yes?" Scorpia asked, leaning against the doorframe and looking down at her with a stern expression.

For a moment, the noncom felt like a bug under a magnifying glass.

"I…"

"Hey, Scorpia," Lee said, walking up to stand beside his crewmate, "Sorry to bother you again, Chief Ellis here had a message to deliver."

Scorpia looked at the man, and immediately her demeanor changed. She seemed slightly shorter as her expression brightened, "Oh, it's you Chief Lee! Yeah, sure, message? Okay!"

Lee leaned on Ellis' shoulder, "Well, chief?"

"I...I…" Ellis shook her head, "Sorry to bother you...Princess Adora told me to tell Force Captain Catra, uh…"

She scratched her head, then shook it again, "She told me to tell the force captain...whatever she does, not to use the showers, and she also said to tell her that it was from her specifically."

Scorpia furrowed her brow, "Did she say anything about what that meant?"

"No, she said to only say that."

Shrugging, the scorpion woman said, "Alright, I'll tell her. Anything else, chiefs?"

"No, that was it. Wasn't it, Ellis?"

Ellis shook her head rapidly.

"Alright, good night then!"

"See ya, have a good one!" Lee gave a little wave as the door shut, and elbowed Ellis.

"I told you, 2.5 meters-"

"_I thought you were kidding!_"

"Like you said; cute aren't they? And it's not quite two point _five_..."

Ellis glared at him, "I know where you sleep, you asshole."

"It's a small ship. Also, watch your language, there are kiddies about!"

"With all due respect," one of Lee's team spoke up, "they're from a Leibowitz-type world. They probably swear better than we do."

"I'm gonna schedule you to clean the dolphin tanks, Crewman. With your toothbrush…"

Inside the Horde party's suite, Scorpia scratched her head, puzzled for a moment at the odd message.

"Was that one of the guards?" Catra asked, emerging from her room eating a sandwich.

"Yeah…" Scorpia scratched her head again, looking back at the door, "she had a message for you from Adora. Said to tell you whatever you do, don't use the showers. Do you know what-"

Without a word, Catra shoved her sandwich into Scorpia's claws and entered the bathroom, locking it behind her.

The other force captain was suddenly concerned. What did the message mean?

She put her ear to the door, and could just make out some indistinct mumbling, from Catra's voice and the electronic lady voice.

There was an abrupt sound of water jets blasting, and a very loud shriek.

"Catra?! Catra, are you okay?!" Scorpia demanded, hammering the door.

It squawked almost angrily at her, indicating it was locked, and did so several more times when she pushed the button nearby to tell her it was still locked.

She was prepared to break it down, until Catra yelled, "_Scorpia I'm fine stay outta here!_"

"You yelled, do you need any help-?"

"_Thank you Scorpia, I'm fine_!"

Scorpia stepped back, an eyebrow raised. "Well, at least she said thank you…"

She sat in a chair twiddling her claws and hearing the sound of water from the door. There were some other indistinct sounds, but at one point she swore she could hear music.

Finally, after an hour or so, Catra emerged, dressed in a clean uniform with a towel wrapped around her. Her eyelids were half closed, and she shuffled as she walked.

Scorpia looked up, and tilted her head, "Catra, are you alright?"

Catra nodded slowly, and walked to one of the chairs. She leaned back, and sighed. Almost _purred_.

Scorpia resisted the urge to make an _aww_ sound, and stepped over, "...are you okay?"

She furrowed her brow and touched Catra's hair. It was all clean, neat, and straight which it hadn't been in days at least. "Did you wash your hair?"

"Yeah…" Catra said drowsily, closing her eyes, "I cleaned my uniform too. No more...um..stuff, that might grow in it."

She slumped even lower.

"Catra, are you sure okay?"

"Yeah... I'm fine. Best. Shower. Ever…" her jaw went limp, she fell back a little further, and started to snore.

Scorpia smiled happily, and went to find a blanket to pull over her. And a pillow to avoid those neck cramps she kept getting.

"Well, this explains why you've been so grouchy, you sleep anywhere! Man, what kind of tweaks do you live with…?"

Entrapta observed the scene with some amusement, then went back to her work tearing apart the computer as if nothing had happened.

_These isolinear chips are fascinating! And most of these people's technology runs off of them! Electromagnetics, very few moving parts, if any...what other kinds of inventions do they have?_

Most of what the Horde had, even if it was better than the Rebellion's, was still a hodgepodge of material. There was no simplicity, no uniformity, only chaos of ten different eras of both electronic and mechanical computer systems.

These Starfleet people were completely different. Standardization was king here. It wasn't like the train gauge problems that plagued both the Rebellion and the Horde in the war, these people's technology was unified and symmetrical for the most part.

Their equipment was a hodgepodge only in the sense of what you would find from a ship that hasn't visited a yard in a while. Nothing was salvage, no parts recovered from factories that no longer existed and would never build again. If a part broke down, they just had to file a requisition form. It was as uniform as one could make it, the imperfection of a well-oiled machine everything running off the same standards.

Not like Hordak's prosthetics.

She already had a sketch out for a basic setup using electromagnetics instead of hydraulic pistons, mostly as a thought experiment. Likely the Federation had far more advanced technology. Perhaps even androids.

She wondered what kind of care they should/could give Hordak. Prosthetics or replacement limbs?

On the one hand, why argue with success? Organic limbs worked fairly well, and if they could replace them, why not?

But on the other, machinery was able to go beyond the limits of biology. Humans could see beyond the visual spectrum with certain technological aids, so why stick with the reliable-yet-limited?

Now the question remained...if they were really the First Ones, wouldn't they know about the portals?

**XXXXX**

Captain Hayes and Commander Matthias made their way from the mess hall to a turbolift, and took it up several decks. Exiting out near his quarters, Hayes keyed the door and walked in, letting Matthias inside.

The room was dark, lit only by the stars and the planet outside.

Matthias hovered near the door, unsure of whether to go or not.

Hayes pulled the handkerchief away from his nose, blew it, and tossed the bloody rag in a hamper. He trudged to a small fridge beside the replicator, and pulled it open. He drew a bottle out of the fridge, and opened it.

After a long draw, Hayes walked over to his couch and sat down heavily with a sigh.

Matthias moved nearby, turning on a small lamp on a coffee table, "you alright, Archer?"

Hayes sighed again, and looked up at Matthias, "honestly, Seetar? I don't know."

"Want me to stay? I got a few minutes."

Hayes gestured to an armchair nearby, and Matthias took it.

He noticed the amount of books, PADDs, and other miscellaneous items on the table. His friend's quarters were a bit of a mess.

Matthias also noted in particular a photograph propped up on top of a few books. It looked like it had been taken off the wall at some point and Hayes had neglected to put it back.

Pointing at it, Matthias said, "that's you and Colonel Sheri, right?"

The captain leaned over and picked up the small framed picture.

He looked at it for a long time, then turned it around and passed it to the Gorn. Matthias took it in both hands.

"I know this must be hard for you."

The captain nodded, taking another drink. "Not as bad as it is on Max...Captain Sheri, excuse me. You may have heard how quiet she's been. God, it must be like losing her all over again."

The Gorn nodded. Captain Maxine Sheri commanded one of the other ships in their task force.

"I can relate. Can't imagine losing one of my siblings, let alone my only sister."

Matthias looked at the picture again, "How'd you and the colonel meet? You may have told me the story, but I don't remember all the details."

Hayes smiled a little, "I enlisted back in the early 2360s. We got assigned to the same platoon when I was a corporal. She was squad leader, but not for long. Blasted Cardies…"

"I heard it was tough on the ground. Starfleet had it bad, but the marines…"

Hayes nodded, "We lost a lot of officers. Do you remember that tactical nuclear strike on Marva IV? I was there. Our battalion got dropped in to help the army, and the Cardies popped that firecracker off during the first night. The colonel, sergeant then, was the only senior officer in our platoon to survive- they'd been in a meeting and were out in the open. She got burned, but was back later as lieutenant. We took that photo in the Cardie LZ, after kicking them out."

In the photo were a dozen or so Federation Marines, standing in the middle of a ruined command post in full gear. Their uniforms were a single grey color, with white, black, and brown colors for a camouflage effect. They were sets of impressive powered armor, protecting the entire body and providing a full suite of defense against vacuum, phasers, water, bullets, explosions, or gas. Their helmets were like that of the soldiers of the early 21st century, with the addition of attached visors with Heads-Up Displays, and face guards, and the ability to be pressurized.

The suits weren't hulking, but in fact were relatively slim and agile looking.

They weren't mecha, but were powered armor. One could have almost mistaken them for just heavily loaded infantry if they squinted. They were armed with a single rifle, sidearms, along with some other equipment. A loadout not dissimilar to those of the infantry that had preceded them. They still carried equipment in webbing, pouches, and belts, still carried grenades and extra magazines and supplies shoved everywhere. Yet unlike their ancestors, they still had advantages. Their armor might not have been the flashiest, they couldn't leap tall buildings or project force over a kilometer, but it did the work those more expensive armors couldn't. They provided a simple and minimal cost way to protect the grunt in the modern battlefield, while still increasing their offensive capabilities. They still enhanced the user's speed, and endurance, enable them to carry many times the equipment of previous generations of soldiers, weapons that would normally take a crew to operate, and kept them from getting their heads melted, defending against environments and attacks alike.

These Hoplite suits were the mainstay of the Federation Marine Corps. Anyone could recognize them, even if they were more boring than the Marine Raider's Marauder suits or the Federation Army Airborne Jaguar suits.

A much younger Sergeant Hayes struggled in a headlock from a tall dark-haired woman, who also held two more marines, one male and one female on her other side in an equally intense headlock. A fourth Marine, a Vulcan, stood nearby, giving a sidelong glance to the display. A handful of other Marines stood around, posing in various ways and looking as happy as Hayes' friends.

The dark-haired woman, a lieutenant, had burns across the left side of her face, but was grinning from ear to ear as she hugged her subordinates.

"_2nd Platoon, A Company, 1st Battalion, 13th Federation Marine Regiment_" was written in one corner of the photo.

Matthias chuckled, an alien hissing laugh, "she seems nice."

"She really cared about everyone under her command, really friendly. That's Sergeant Marc Logan and Sergeant Denise Lucille she's strangling, the other squad leaders. The charming gentleman giving us the side eye is Platoon Sergeant T'Kan."

Hayes described it without even looking at the photo since he handed it over.

"Damned beancounters. Beancounters, bureaucrats, and appeasers. They handed that place right over to the bastards. After all we bled for it. The Maquis had the right idea, I just wish Starfleet had figured it out too..."

"You two keep in touch when you left for Starfleet?" Matthias asked.

"Heck yeah. Wasn't illegal to fraternize anymore. Kept in touch with a bunch of the old crew."

"Did you talk to her before the incident?" The Gorn asked in a low voice.

Hayes drained the last of his drink, "Spotty. When the war started, you know how comms got. She and T'Kan stayed together, but it was usually the two of them just meeting one of us. She told us she got a new assignment and wouldn't be able to get in contact with us, even less than we already were getting."

"Did you have any idea about...?"

"_No_," Hayes snapped, then coughed, "no, we didn't have any clue. None of us did. She didn't even tell Max, her own sister!"

He stood up and went to a window. He looked down on the planet below.

"The colonel, after the Cardassian War ended...she went through some tough times. That sunburn from the nuke was light compared to what else happened to her."

Matthias nodded, "I saw the photos. Any idea what made her do it?"

"She was always protective of everyone under her command. Considering how many she lost fighting the Doms, I'm betting she judged it to be her best choice."

Hayes put his bottle back in the fridge instead of the replicator. It was an old habit from dealing with battlefield conditions and minimal energy consumption allowed.

"I'll get some sleep, Seetar. Thanks for... listening, I guess."

Matthias nodded, and stood up, "anything you want me to do?"

"Negative. Make sure you don't burn the ship down."

"There's no oxygen in deep space, sir."

Hayes snorted, "Is this why we get along? Our shit taste in jokes?"

"I'm just stating the facts, captain." Matthias' lips drew into a grin that never failed to look like a leer.

"Get outta here…"

"Yes sir. Good night, sir."

Matthias exited the room, leaving his captain in the dark quarters.

Hayes picked up the photograph again, sitting down with it.

After a moment, he retrieved his laptop from the coffee table.

He opened his personal email, navigating from the week's new messages to an old folder.

Dozens of messages from over the years lay within, but he clicked on one of the most recent one in the folder. Dated four years ago.

A video call message was inside. Pressing play, a soft smile appeared on his face and he leaned forward.

"_Hey Archer. Guess who?_"

The woman's voice was weary, but had a burst of energy brought back by the promise of even a message to a friend. It was also somewhat hoarse, and it's pitch occasionally drifted around. She grinned happily on the screen. She was dressed in a grey uniform, with white, black, and brown colors for a camouflage effect.

"_So, my old platoon leader got himself a promotion, did he? Commander, sounds fancy. And command of a starship, nice work! USS _Evans_, right? 'Only' a _Sabre_-class my foot, those things pack a punch from what I hear!_"

Hayes smiled a little, and replied to the recording, "well, didn't want to disappoint you, ma'am."

"_Guess you're too good for us ground-pounders, now are you? All cozy in your carpeted living room of a bridge!"_

"That was only the _Galaxy-_class!" Hayes grumbled good naturedly, as if she could hear him.

The woman chuckled as if she'd heard him, "_well, can't spend this whole time harping at ya, we got limited bandwidth out here. It's like the 21st century! My legs are fine, by the way, I know you and the rest have been worried about me again. I got them blown off by a Houdini, I got them replaced, what's the big deal?_"

She laughed again, "_it's not like I got my hand bitten off. Again. Anyway, I called to tell you and the other folks; T'Kan and I have been reassigned, comms are going to be spotty. Don't worry, we're not back out in the field, but I can't say where we're going._"

She laughed a third time, but there was something to her voice.

Looking Hayes, or the camera at least, in the eye, she coughed, and asked, "_How are you doing, really? I want to know. I hear the war's not going any better for you fellas than us. Maybe worse, depending on your point of view. Max told me about the Battle of D.S. Six. If the Jem'Hadar are as bad up there as they are down here…_" she shuddered, "_Jesus, it's almost as bad as the Borg. The only saving grace is these guys actually have rules of war, and we can talk to them. Otherwise…_"

She trailed off, and sighed, "_It's worse than the news says it is. I don't compare them to the Borg lightly. Other than them, this is the biggest threat we've faced since...the Romulan War? Maybe the Cardies if I'm being generous? We've been pushed off dozens of planets, we've taken heavy losses each time. The battalion's been reduced by almost 30% and we're extremely lucky. I can barely stand the losses. Those things don't sleep, all they eat is that Ketracel White, they cloak…We can kill them, sure, but it's so damned frustrating. We either hold our ground, and get pulled back, or we do a forced withdrawal protecting refugees and pull back. We bleed them, but they keep killing us. We can't win like this, not with the ships we've got. Pound for pound, Marines can beat them on the ground, but there's not enough of us, we can't be everywhere at once, and we can't be _anywhere _with our ships being blown out from under us! And then Starfleet sends their damned 'ground forces',_" the woman made air quotes with her hands, "_to help us, and they're just a burden. You wouldn't believe how many we've lost to shrapnel alone. Their helmets are paperweights. I thought there were only a quarter million of these morons! How can I run into them that often?! Archer, do your old auntie Mara a favor and complain. Your naval infantry that tried to take our place sucks._"

She took a deep breath, pausing for a minute, and shook her head, "_Sorry to dump all this on you, kid. It's been...a tough time. You know as well as I do how things are going to go once the Cardies take down the minefield at the wormhole. This war is going to hell, and if something doesn't change soon, if we don't stop them, the Federation will be a memory._"

Sheri brightened up a little, "_It hasn't been all bad, though, I suppose..._"

Captain Hayes smiled softly, as the colonel on the screen recounted a story or two of her time on the front, and then in the hospital.

"_...I don't know what that nurse was thinking when she saw my chart. She asked about each of them, was real nice about it, but I swear to god every doctor in that place found a reason to pass by. you'd think they'd never seen this many scars!_"

Hayes snorted. The colonel's scars were always visible.

After an all-too-short time, the chirp of a combadge sounded from the message, "_Ah, sorry Archer, I gotta go. I'll talk to you as soon as I can. Heck, talk to me when you get the chance! Take care of yourself out there._"

She smiled one last time, and saluted, "_Dismissed, commander. See you starside._"

Hayes' smile changed in tone, as he somberly returned the salute. Even if he was in Starfleet now, he still remembered how to deliver a snappy one.

The message ended, a play button appearing in the center.

The captain leaned forward onto his knees, hanging his head.

"See you starside, Mara. See you starside."


	4. Chapter 4

The next day, the Etherians were summoned to move down a deck, to holodeck 1.

In the process, through some cruel twist of fate, Captain Hayes found himself stuck in a turbolift with two guards, one Caitian, and one individual who was technically a princess. He could feel a migraine beginning just behind his eyes, making his temples throb.

Nothing was happening yet, but the tension in the atmosphere was so hazardous he was surprised the environmental systems hadn't declared it unsafe. Both stood on either side of the elevator looking straight ahead with her arms crossed.

"So you washed your clothes finally." Catra said at last.

There was a very, very long pause. "Yep." Adora grunted.

"Been a while since you had a real shower?"

"Yep."

"That's what you get hanging out with insurgents."

Adora sniffed the air, "I see you've washed your clothes and showered too. Got tired of licking yourself to stay clean?"

"Not my fault you never got the hang of it."

Hayes looked up at the ceiling, and silently counted backwards from ten, to prevent himself saying anything rash. The turbolift door finally opened, and they stepped out into the hall.

"Oh, here we go!" Catra groaned, rolling her eyes, "Little miss teacher's pet! 'Hi, I'm Adora, I suck up to everyone who has authority'!"

"At least I'm polite! 'I'm Catra, I'm gonna threaten and punch anyone who even has a casual thought about me'!"

"Okay, I think we get the point," Hayes said loudly, "Is there any way you two could settle this later?"

"Is there an airlock along the way?" Catra asked, turning around.

"Do you have any duct tape?" Adora asked, turning around herself, crossing her arms.

Hayes grimaced, "No one is dying today. That's what I'm here to prevent."

The two teenagers in front of him glared at each other, at him, the guards, pretty much everyone. He looked right back, doing his best to keep the glare from being too hostile.

After a long moment, to Catra's surprise, he turned his gaze on Adora. He tilted his head somewhat.

"Princess."

"What?"

He extended a hand, palm up.

Adora looked confused, "What?"

He gave her a _really? _Expression.

She held up both hands, "what are you…?"

Hayes pointed at the angular lump in her sleeve near her left elbow. He held his hand out again.

Adora sighed, stuck her arm out, and pulled a butter knife, made of the strange soft green material as most of the cutlery was, out of her sleeve.

Catra's brow was very low, her mouth open slightly, as she tried to comprehend such a trick. From...from _Adora_ of all people!

Seemed she hadn't forgotten everything.

Hayes took the knife, "Princess, I politely ask you not to do that again. We don't intend any harm to you, and I don't want anyone to die today."

"How can we be sure of that?" She snapped, "how can we be sure of anything you say? You locked Catra in a force field yesterday, and you kidnapped us! And anyway, with that holodeck of yours...how can we be sure of anything?!"

Catra looked at her, alarmed, then glanced around.

Hayes looked shocked, then looked about himself, "computer, end program."

There was no response.

He pulled his combadge off and tossed it down the hallway. It fell to the deck with a small muffled _thump_.

He retrieved it, and jogged back over.

"See? If we were on a holodeck, it would hit the wall. It's a good-"

"That doesn't prove anything!" Catra barked, taking a step forward, "Your stupid holograms can make anything seem real! They trap you in them and might never let you out until you start seeing weird junk from... from…"

A low growl grew in the girl's chest, her rage boiling. She had had it. Had enough of _it_. The thought of her nightmares coming back was the tipping point.

"Just get it over with and shoot us! It'll be a mercy! Or let us go home! What on earth do you people want from us?! Why are we here?! Why is _she _here?! Why are you doing this to us?! Why won't you answer any questions?! What's with these stupid history lessons?! _Why won't you let us go home?! Why is she here?! What do you _want_?!_"

There was a strange feeling in Catra's gut, an almost instinctive revulsion at what she'd done. Everything told her it was wrong. It was like she'd been stabbed. Insubordination was tolerated, but verbal assault was not.

Catra didn't know what she expected in response. She braced herself for the Captain's fury, her hands curling into an attack mode. Yet she also froze at the same time. She couldn't lift her arms. She felt frozen.

An intense feeling of deja vu. She felt helpless and scared. A horrific anxiety rose in her. And anger. So much anger and hate.

Hate.

Anger.

Scared.

Frozen.

Helpless.

... weakness.

Thoughts ran through her mind like a hamster wheel.

Hayes looked down at her, an odd expression on his face. His brow slightly lowered, and his mouth curled into a frown.

Adora found herself stuck as well.

She felt nothing but fear, helplessness and a singular desire to protect Catra. To tear apart this man with her bare hands.

Yet at the same time, she still felt so weak and unable to do anything. Why?

She felt another odd emotion tugging her in another direction, an old and familiar one she had fought with.

Almost with practiced movements, this feeling was beaten and buried. She knew it was wrong...

Yet this old feeling still spoke, still insisting her protectiveness was wrong too.

They watched Hayes with bated breath.

His mouth relaxed, and his brow went upwards.

There was something in his eyes. A sadness that fit with certain lines on his face.

Hayes shook his head, and sighed. He put a hand on his hip, scratching his cheek with the other.

"Look, Force Captain, I'm sorry you're so confused. It's alright. Princess, I'm sure you're just as confused, and I apologise. I realize this is a lot to take in. But it's alright. There's more of you in the same fix. You're not alone. And believe it or not, that fact helps. It's a lot to take in, you're in a weird place, you're scared, and you're hanging around with some of your worst enemies. We've explained part of the situation already, I hope properly, and we're going to the holodeck to give you the proof you need. We have security footage received before the subspace bubble activated. We'll explain our intentions in detail later, but for now…"

He spread his hands, "We just want to help. This is our fault. _Everything_ that happened to you, is Starfleet's responsibility. We admit that, we're not proud of that, but we're going to fix it, and help you people get the stars back. That's what we do."

"That's it?! We don't need you!" Catra snapped, "We were perfectly fine without you! Who asked you?"

"Your planet is suffering. You've got ecological disasters all over the place, you had a short-lived nuclear winter recently, and you have constant war. How is that 'perfectly fine'?"

Catra punched the wall, making the guards raise their weapons, "Go to hell! It's not _your_ responsibility! The Horde-"

"You bomb people. You attack innocent people."

Catra's face grew even more furious, and she gestured to Adora, "You're taking _their_ side?! The damned _princesses_?!"

Hayes shook his head, "No! We're not taking their side! They're causing problems too."

"How?" Adora demanded.

"Conflict causes problems! War destroys! Both sides do it, no matter what your intentions! And your scorched earth tactics tend to leave a lot of damage! Trust me, we've seen it before! You're not equal in the things you've done, but we don't know all of what's been going on. Even with all that going on, we need to stop this war. We need to bring Hordak to justice if nothing else. _Ignoring_," he said, holding up a hand to stop Catra, "...local politics, he's attacked our ships. He tried to steal a _lot_ of Federation property. He's a significant officer of one of our military enemies, we're obligated to deal with him."

Hayes huffed, "look, we're not going to get anywhere here, and I don't want to have this conversation eight more times. How about this: you keep following me to the holodeck. We can show you we're telling the truth. Then, we'll talk about everything. We'll negotiate like the different nations we are. That's why we picked you up. We needed intelligence, but we also needed local leaders. We couldn't get Lord Hordak or Queen Angella, so we got you people instead."

"Oh yeah, 'negotiation'," Catra said, nodding with a sarcastic air, even putting up air quotes with her fingers, "And everyone knows the first step in that is kidnapping people."

"It is when your people are going to get shot if they try to approach diplomatically, because the people you're trying to negotiate with either don't think you're real or think you're with the enemy. This sort of thing has happened before. Sigma Iotia II, for instance. We got you so that we could explain our position, let you talk to your leaders, and get them to the negotiating table."

"So you come up to random planets, kidnap their leaders, and force them to talk on a regular basis?" Adora asked harshly.

Hayes crossed his arms, "No. This is an extreme example, but so was Sigma Iotia II. It was our fault there, just like it's our fault here. We want to stop your war, but we want _you_ to be the ones to do it. We're not going to force you to be nice under penalty of death, we're here to facilitate negotiations. Yes, we're going to try to integrate your people back into the Federation, if that's possible, but we respect your rights. We _haven't_ been here in a while, you're right, and figuring out exactly what we're going to do to do that without hurting anything is a problem for later. First and foremost we're here to help. We need to stop your war."

Adora felt confusion, frustration, and an almost irrational anger at this man. He'd kidnapped them. He'd hurt Catra with that field, and he blamed both of them for the war.

With reluctance, she had to admit he was a little right about that last one. And he did want to get rid of Hordak…

But how could they trust anything the Feds said?

Yet they said they had proof.

Catra caught her eye. She glared, and Adora glared right back. She noted the other girl's tail was wagging back and forth slowly, her ears straight up and turned to the sides.

She offered a small shrug, and both looked back at the captain.

"Let's get this over with." Catra grunted.

"You mad you didn't think of the knife?"

"I'll show you how mad I am. When you're asleep."

"Had plenty of opportunities for that before!"

"And I regret not taking them!"

Hayes' eye twitched a little.

"_Teenagers_…"

Finally reaching the holodeck, the ten locals were escorted inside. Four guards were inside, as was Commander Matthias, and another individual wearing a teal turtleneck.

He was human, an older gentleman, with silver hair, a square jaw, and lines on his face. He looked quite serious, or at least had a very neutral expression, and had his hands behind his back.

They stood beside a large console to the left of the entrance, covered in displays and controls.

Hayes sighed as he entered the room, noting the two local groups had formed once again.

Still, he put a hand on the shoulders of the girls in front of him, "Princess, Force captain, you're going to stay separate, understood?"

Catra spun about and shoved his hand off, making the guards raise their weapons.

She panted a little, glaring at each one, then turning her glare on Hayes. "We were gonna do that anyway. I don't want to be on the same _ship_ as her."

"Right, and a dog ate your homework. I'm being cautious. Princess?"

Adora glared at Catra, "I'm sure Scorpia misses you."

"Bite me."

"I'd rather not."

Hayes grimaced, and held up a hand to his security escort.

Adora and Catra exchanged one more glare, and split off.

Hayes sighed again, and went over to Matthias' console.

"Problem, captain?" the Gorn asked in a low voice, somewhat amused.

Hayes glared at him, and took a deep breath, "I don't get paid enough for this."

"Sir, need I remind you-"

"Interrupting a superior officer, that's ten bucks, gimme."

"My paycheck goes to my family, sir."

"Now it's twelve."

"Screw you."

"Is that a to-do list, lizard? I don't swing that way."

"Gentlemen?" The man in the science uniform asked in a rich bass voice, his expression unchanging, "Can we get started?"

"Sure, Isaac." Hayes nodded, and walked toward the Etherians, clearing his throat.

"Alright, I trust we're not going to have any more incidents today?" Hayes said loudly, mentally kicking himself as he did so.

_I am going to regret saying that._

"What are we doing in here?" Glimmer asked, eyeing the frames around the holodeck walls, "I'm starting to hate holodecks."

"I'll take it from here, captain." the man in teal said. He stepped up beside Hayes, his hands still behind his back and his expression still neutral.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Isaac Emerson, ship's counselor. How is everyone today?"

There were only a few murmured replies, which didn't phase him.

"I'm sure all of you are quite...unsettled by everything that's happened. As the captain has told you, this is a unique situation. We need intelligence on what's been happening on the surface, and we need to open negotiations with your people. While you are Federation colonists, you don't know anything about us and you have little reason to trust us."

"Who's side are you on?" Catra asked, smirking a little, "Seems like you're explaining why we should murder you all."

Emerson tilted his head, "Not my intention. While you are Federation colonists, or the descendants of them, and while Admiral Hordak is one of our enemies, you're part of your own independent nations. We need to understand the situation before we can act, and we must negotiate with your people before we take sides, if we so choose. But as I said, why should you trust us? We could just be lying about all of this. Well, you know the truth about the planet, but what's to prove that we're the First Ones? What's to prove we're telling the truth about anything?"

"I've got some ideas," Adora said, stepping forward.

"Oh?" Emerson asked, "Certainly, Princess Adora. Please, anything we can do for you."

Catra rolled her eyes, groaned, and facepalmed.

Adora was a little taken aback. She shook her head, and straightened up, going to her best at-ease-delivering-report posture, "Um...okay. We met a...we know someone who...knows a lot about the First Ones. She's…"

"Another weird old hologram? Do you always listen to those?" Catra demanded.

"Leave her alone!" Glimmer snapped.

"Please, everyone calm down." Emerson said, putting up his hands.

Hayes spoke up before things got more heated, "So you ran into a hologram, is that it, princess Adora?"

She winced, "Uh...well...not exactly, Yes, it told us a few things about the First Ones."

"You want to use that stuff to verify we are who we say we are, correct?" Emerson asked.

"Yeah…" Adora edged away from the counselor, "um…"

She shook her head, "Okay! Who was the original She-Ra?"

Hayes glanced at Reed, "Commander?"

Matthias looked at his PADD, entering commands. He spoke to the captain, and room at large, "Starfleet intelligence has been a bit obstructionist during our work here. There were some critical experiments being done here, so they were worried what little security they have left will vanish. Thus, they've been stingy with information on a need to know basis. Military intelligence, as I'm sure we can all relate."

There were some scattered chuckles from those with Starfleet or other military backgrounds.

Matthias' head twitched back a little in surprise as he found what he was looking for, and passed the PADD over, "this is the information on Project Recharge, captain. You're...not gonna like it."

Hayes took it, "the original She-ra was…"

His eyes bugged out.

"Commander, are you sure this is correct?"

"That's what Reed gave me, sir."

"Well?" Adora asked, unable to stop a small smirk. It was nice to see them squirming for a change.

Hayes had a distressed expression, still looking at the device, "The last lead test subject, and last project head, of Federation Science Bureau Project Recharge, was Colonel Mara Sheri, Federation Marine Corps, 13th Marine Regiment, commander of the Etheria Garrison and the 45th Marine Expeditionary Unit."

Adora's smirk vanished, but she nodded, "That's correct, her name was Mara. I never knew her full name...you said she was a Marine?"

Hayes rubbed the bridge of his nose, then let his hand drop with a sigh, "Yep. Commander Matthias, how many laws was she breaking?"

"Three or four, captain." Matthias answered calmly.

He noted the way Catra's stance shifted, and her face changed.

"Is there a problem?" Glimmer asked, glaring, "You have a problem with She-ra?"

Hayes grimaced, "Not exactly. Well, actually, I do. I'm mad she didn't _tell_ me."

"Tell you? What?" Adora asked excitedly, getting closer, "What do you mean?"

"The colonel was my friend," Hayes muttered, "I knew her for years. She was my commanding officer for a while, we served together in the Cardassian Wars..."

He noticed the room had become silent. Hayes looked and found most of the Rebellion party was staring wide-eyed at him.

Perfuma started forward, "You knew the original She-ra?"

"You know her name?" Adora asked the other girl, "Wow, I should've asked you guys more about her…"

"What was she like? Where did she come from? What happened to her?" Perfuma demanded excitedly, clasping her hands together and bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"That's what we're trying to find out," Hayes couldn't help a smile, amused at Perfuma's excitement, but his smile soon faded, remembering Mara. "She was…from Alpha Centauri. She was a very good friend of mine. We don't know what happened to her, not after she activated the subspace field."

"Alpha Centauri, that's such a beautiful name…!" Perfuma clutched her cheeks, starry-eyed with wonder.

Glimmer rolled her eyes and put a hand on Perfuma's shoulder. "Take it easy," she told Perfuma.

"But-!"

"Okay…" Adora cut Perfuma off, taking a deep breath, "That checks out. Do you know about...Light Hope?"

Hayes was surprised again, "Excuse me?"

"Light Hope. The...the holographic lady."

Hayes furrowed his brow, "Commander?"

Matthias took the PADD, hit a few commands, then handed it back to Hayes.

He looked at the device...only for his eyes to bug out again.

Hayes stuck the PADD under one arm so he could rub his face.

"Captain?"

He looked up at the ceiling, "Damn it…"

"Captain?" Matthias repeated.

Hayes looked at the PADD again, then to Adora, "Governor Light Hope Gunden. Governor of Etheria, and project head for a whole lot of projects." He shook his head, and looked at Matthias, "I'll explain later."

Emerson stepped in, "The captain's personal dealings aside...Princess Adora, did you have anything further to ask? We'd really like to accommodate you as much as possible."

"What about us?" Catra asked, "you gonna accommodate _us?_"

"I was talking about all ten of you." Emerson replied, looking her in the eyes.

She shivered a little. This guy was _creepy_, his face never seemed to change.

"I...uh...didn't have much else for now." Adora mumbled, her voice trailing off.

"Wow, Adora-!" Catra threw up her hands in exasperation.

"Catra, shut up!"

Emerson clapped his hands together, "Well then. If there's nothing else, we will continue with our presentation. We have some evidence to prove our word. Sensor logs, and video recordings of our encounters with the Gercid Empire, and what our ships picked up before the subspace field activated. Commander Matthias?"

A blue line on the gridded floor lit up, parallel to the door, and just ahead of the console. The guards gently moved the natives back behind the line, and Emerson stepped out in front of them.

"I imagine none of you are too excited to participate fully in a holodeck simulation, so we will be utilizing passive observer mode. It is much like a television receiver some of you may be familiar with, only with depth. Do not be alarmed, nothing here can hurt you. It _cannot_ go past this line," he pointed to the blue line for emphasis, "it is physically impossible."

"Well that's a first…" Catra muttered.

The lights dimmed, and the blue line on the floor grew to run up the walls and across the ceiling. Beyond the line, the holodeck lights turned completely off.

On the left side, small pinpoints of light appeared, like someone had flipped a switch. A strange planet appeared, hovering above what had been the floor. It was not the deep green of Earth, Cait, or Etheria, but instead a tan color with splotches of lime green. There were few oceans, but nothing like the other worlds.

The perspective pulled in toward the planet, until it took up most of the view. Small dots grew bigger, transforming into spacecraft, satellites, and space stations.

They were a motley lot. The space stations were patchwork, of varying eras and designs. Solar arrays were unfurled from a giant tin can-shaped station, its hull pitted and scratched, and had been attached to a segment almost as big as itself made up of a dozen smaller modules.

Another was a spinning wheel-shaped station, with two wheels stacked on top of one another, and two spokes each connecting them to a central axis. Shuttles moved to and from the rectangular hangar deck in the center.

There were more that were simply big cubular frames, some empty and some with the skeletons of large ships contained within. Shipyards.

Even more stations and objects, some very new and some quite old, littered orbit as far as the eye could see.

Small craft with wings headed down toward the planet's surface, riding balls of fire down. There were a handful of ships that were conical shapes on top of cylindrical modules. A very primitive, but reliable design. They were as worn as the first space station.

These capsules stayed in orbit, either docking with or leaving the stations.

There were dozens of large vessels, clearly not designed for atmosphere. Some were worn down, but had obviously received more maintenance. They all had an arrowhead-shaped hull, with smooth flanks that spread outward from the bow. The larger craft looked more like spear points in their length, some with wide and bulbous stern segments. They were silver or gold in their hull plating.

All mounted the same type of massive engines, equal in shape and size. The smaller ones had two, the larger ones with two pairs.

Their bows had four torpedo tubes arranged around the end point. On their dorsal and ventral centerlines were rows of gun turrets, with one, two, three, or even four barrels.

One of the biggest, and obviously newest, was a ship with several additional turrets on the "wings" containing its outer pair of engines. A total of eight torpedo tubes, with four small double-barreled guns behind them, sprouted smoothly from the bow. Hangar decks were clearly visible on its rear flanks.

Despite their immense firepower, their size paled in comparison to the ship nearby. The "camera" focused on a vessel bigger than any of the others, two or three times their size.

It was the color of aluminum, and looked positively alien compared to the others. It had a large saucer-shaped upper hull, a rectangular lower hull, with a pair of large nacelles sprouting from either side. Their tips were red, and their sides blue. Windows covered the ship, which appeared to have no weaponry at all.

"This is the _Enterprise_-_D_," Emerson spoke up from out of the darkness, startling the Etherians out of their immersion, "It was the flagship of the fleet for a while. She was named after two of the most famous ships in Starfleet history. There have been six-well, seven now."

A stentorian, yet dulcet voice suddenly spoke up out of the darkness.

"Captain's log, stardate 42588.6. The _Enterprise_ has been assigned to negotiations with the Gercid Empire, a power encountered by the Federation several years ago when one of their exploration vessels stumbled into a battle between Starfleet and Cardassian ships. The vessel withdrew rapidly after being attacked by a Cardassian ship and rescued by a Federation ship. They spoke to the rescuing starship briefly before quickly withdrawing. It took time to find their territory, as their ship appeared to have taken measures to prevent pursuit. We finally found one of their outlying colonies, and were quickly summoned to their homeworld. We are now in orbit, with an away team meeting their leaders."

The right side of the holodeck, in darkness up until this point, lit up, like a curtain on stage.

It revealed a strange sort of control room. It was a large chamber oriented toward a big display at the front. Carpeting was laid down, with various shades of coloration. Three chairs were arranged in the center, around which the other seats and controls were laid out, operated by a total of a dozen or so individuals.

The three chairs had controls on their armrests, and looked a little too comfortable for a warship.

A tall man in a Starfleet uniform sat in the center seat, a stern look on his face and a balding head. His uniform was a different type from the ones Hayes and his crew wore.

The shoulders were black, with the red division color shown on the chest, back, and sleeves. Piping was on the collar, shoulder, and sleeve cuff. The rest of the bridge crew had the same sort of uniform.

The man, the captain judging by the pips on his collar, was peering intently at the viewscreen. It displayed a similar view to the left side of the holodeck, but from the perspective of the _Enterprise_.

Beside him was a young woman in her thirties, who wore a combadge like the rest, but for some reason had an odd purple jumpsuit instead of a uniform.

Two consoles were mounted ahead of the three main chairs, each operated by a single individual. The one on the right of the viewscreen was manned by a _very_ young individual, almost a kid, with short hair and a silver uniform.

The one on the left was almost as weird. His skin was white, beyond pale, and his eyes weren't light brown, but bright yellow, like a hawk's. He wore a gold operations uniform. What exactly he was the Etherians couldn't guess at.

Ramps were placed on either side of the three main command chairs, leading up to a raised area with a curved railing that lifted up to contain several consoles behind the command position.

Against the far wall several crewmembers went about their business, being monitored by a tall and almost frightening being. In addition to his gold uniform, he wore a silver sash. He was clearly not human. His skin was dark, with neat long hair around his head like a mane, and strange ridges that went from his forehead to the top of his head. When he bared his teeth, sharp fangs were exposed.

Satisfied with his checks, the alien went back to the consoles behind the captain, and nodded to a human who had just exited a turbolift at the back of the bridge.

This man wore a red command uniform. He had jet-black hair, and a thick, yet short beard. He moved quickly down the ramp to the third empty command chair.

"Captain, the ambassador's okay, just a few scratches. The embassy staff are a bit worse off, but Dr. Pulaski thinks they're going to pull through. No one's dead."

"Thank you, Number One." the captain replied with a stern voice, nodding curtly. By the sound, he was the one who had recorded the log entry. "Lieutenant Commander Data, what is the status on the Gercid fleet?"

The hands of the pale being at the left console moved rapidly over his controls, "Growing steadily in size, captain," he replied in a light, mellow voice, with no unnecessary change in pitch or sounds of uncertainty, "Intercepted transmissions indicate they are summoning the entirety of their local forces."

"Their weapons are powered. Sir, I recommend we activate shields and power up weapons," the tall alien with the forehead ridges said, "We don't want to be caught off-guard."

The captain sat back in his seat, "You may be right this time, Mr. Worf. Raise shields, power phasers, and load torpedoes, but do not select targets. Let us try to get out of this without bloodshed."

"Sir, I hate to say it, but wouldn't it be better to leave orbit, get some distance from their defense grid?" the bearded man asked.

"They might misconstrue that as a hostile act, Commander," the captain said calmly, then turned to the woman beside him, "...but on the other hand...Counselor? What are you sensing?"

"No more or less hostility than before, captain," the woman said slowly, "They could be preparing to attack, or they may just be scared and taking precautions."

Adora briefly took her focus off the conversation when she heard one of the crewmembers working a console on the side make a small groan sound, unheard by the senior officers but clearly picked up by whatever had recorded this incident.

"Commander Riker, what exactly happened?" the captain asked, "All we picked up was your emergency beam-out signal and something about an attack."

"It was the middle of the night. You remember the riots they warned us about? With very strong emphasis? They told us the rioters got ahold of some of the local law enforcement's equipment. That apparently included heavy weapons, and signal jammers. Our combadges couldn't get through. They blew a hole in the perimeter and came in shooting. I'm sure if one of our sentries hadn't been nearby when they attacked, we wouldn't have made it. And I'm sure they would have told you it was a regrettable incident, and apologize profusely." Riker's voice was calm, but hints of emotion leaked through, "They didn't seem to count on transporter enhancers or subspace beacons to get through their jamming."

"You think it was a deliberate attack? For what purpose?"

Riker spread his hands a little, "They seemed intent on capturing us alive. I'm guessing someone down there was after hostages."

"Yes, but who?" the counselor asked, "The commanders of that fleet? The rioters? A disgruntled political party?"

"We may have stumbled into the middle of a civil war!" the boy in silver uniform at the right-hand console said, spinning about, "There could be people on the surface the fleet has come to try and engage! The military could be acting as the good guys here."

"That does not explain why they have surrounded the _Enterprise_." Lieutenant Commander Data pointed out.

The captain put his hands in his lap, "There are certainly political disputes going on, but everything seems too neat. What kind of law enforcement from a planet like this needs _subspace_ jammers? And how could things have degraded so far that rioters can reach their first embassy from another civilization? That seems like the sort of thing you'd protect. And the fleet _happens_ to appear to deal with their politics at the same time our embassy is attacked?"

"I was guessing that, sir." Riker nodded in agreement, "But we really don't know anything for certain."

"Theft of highly-sensitive equipment is certainly possible," Data said, "In 1995, a US Army veteran was able to steal an M60A3 Patton Tank from a National Guard armory and went on a 'rampage', as the news media of the time described it. It was made possible by the negligence of military personnel stationed at the armory. Similar circumstances could have allowed rioters to get ahold of government-owned subspace jammers."

"But they didn't go after their government? They went after us?" Riker asked.

"There have been many recorded xenophobic incidents soon after first contact with an alien species. They may have targeted us as a scapegoat." Data replied.

Lieutenant Worf spoke up, "The Gercid ships have us surrounded, and more of their ships are on the way. Captain, orders?"

The captain shook his head, "This could be local politics, but it has us involved now. We need to get to the bottom of this. Data, hail…" he paused, furrowing his brow.

"I believe you are referring to Grand Admiral Hordak, sir," Data replied, "There is no need to hail him, he is hailing us."

The captain exchanged a look with Riker, "Onscreen."

The viewscreen changed to reveal a bridge much different from the _Enterprise-D_. This one was shaped like a cube, with grating, and metal wall paneling all visible. Harsh white light lit it somewhat poorly. A single large chair sat in the center, with a pair of seats to either side set into alcoves in the floor. Two more were in front.

The Gercid operating the ship were pale creatures, with pointed ears and red eyes. Their uniforms were shades of grey or black, and plain red insignia in the shape of a creature's wings.

A square hatchway was set behind the large chair, with no steps leading up to it. There were handrails, velcro, and straps everywhere. All the staff were each strapped in tightly to their chairs. A clipboard, or some PADD-like device floated lazily in midair beside the occupant of the main chair, no less strapped in himself.

The other ship had no artificial gravity. But that wasn't nearly as shocking as the commander of the vessel.

He was well-built, pale and cool, his face skull-like, his red teeth pointed. The other Gercid were similar, but none could match his height _and_ his bulk.

It was Lord Hordak. He was younger, with darker hair, but recognizable all the same.

Every Etherian, even the Horde members, visibly reacted to his appearance. Some with fear, others with mixed emotions. And one completely impassive.

Entrapta furrowed her brow, studying the image. She seemed puzzled by something.

She held up one hand, closing one eye and measuring something with her index finger and thumb.

Hordak sat with one arm on his armrest, leaning to one side slightly.

"This is Grand Admiral Hordak of the Gercid battleship _Warrior_ to _Enterprise-D_."

"This is Captain Picard. Greetings, admiral."

Hordak dipped his head, "I'm sorry, captain, but I must demand you power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded. If you surrender, your crew will be well treated. If you do not, I cannot guarantee their safety. Either way, your ship is mine."

Picard exchanged a look with Riker, "I'm afraid I can't do that, admiral. We command superior firepower. You do not wish to provoke us."

Hordak nodded, "that is certainly true, Captain Picard. Even my precious _Warrior_, our flagship, could not hope to destroy your vessel."

"Then-"

Hordak sat back, reflecting Picard's earlier pose somewhat, but his hands held up and fingers together instead of in his lap.

"There is an animal on my world. Or rather, swarms of them. Individually, they cannot hope to take on a larger foe, but they can kill something larger by working together. They close in on the enemy, smothering it with their bodies, and flap their wings at intense speed. The temperature inside reaches lethal levels, and kills the prey. Many of the swarm die, but some live, and carry on the knowledge of how best to kill the next prey faster."

"We have similar creatures on our own world." Picard observed.

"The apis cerana japonica, colloquially known as the Japanese Honeybee," Data said, "It was endangered by nuclear strikes during…"

He trailed off, Riker's gaze burning into his shoulder.

"Then you should know I am serious. Amassed here is a large portion of my people's fleets. They are a swarm, and while their wings are weak individually, together they and my planet's defense grid can hurt even your _Enterprise_."

"You're so willing to accept so many casualties, just to destroy our ship?" Riker said, "what kind of sentients do that?"

"Do you care so little for the lives of those under your command?" Picard demanded.

Hordak actually looked troubled for a moment, and sighed. He rubbed his face slightly, "I do this with no gladness in my heart. I imagine when this is over, I will see the faces of those young men and women I sent to their deaths today, their clans wondering why their children died, and I lived. these ships are the best our scientists can create. To lose them would be a great blow."

"Then it is a valid question, why are you doing this?"

Hordak plucked the floating clipboard out of the air beside him, peering at it. He looked up again, "I do not wish to destroy your ship. Far from it, I would prefer no harm to come to it at all. We live in a hostile universe, captain. We are much less versed in it than you are. Our swarm needs experience. We need your ship. We need your weapons, and your technology."

"We are not your enemies," Picard said, "Why do you need to steal from us? You could avoid any deaths, avoid provoking the Federation if you just back down. All your ships might survive. I can guarantee, we'll fight to our last breath if we have to."

Hordak nodded gravely, "Many of my soldiers might die if you resist. But their deaths will mean something. They will have been fighting for their futures. Next time we may not be so lucky as to run into someone such as you. Someone else might just sweep our ships aside. My people would still fight, and they would die nobly...and pointlessly. But we will accept near-total destruction if it means we get your ship, and the means to defend ourselves."

He stroked his chin, "Tell me, how are the children aboard your ship? Will they see their parents again? Will they live to see another sunrise? Or will your actions be responsible for their deaths? If your surrender now, no blood will be spilled. Your people will be taken care of, and eventually repatriated to your homes if you so wish."

"We will not surrender, grand admiral." Picard said, "Don't make us do this."

"It is only your doing, captain," Hordak replied coldly, sitting back in his chair, "What comes next is on your hands, and yours alone."

On the left side of the holodeck, the warships surrounding the _Enterprise_ unleashed hell on the lone starship. Torpedoes, energy weapons, and even primitive railguns blasted out in a single volley, like a line of soldiers with muskets at Waterloo.

The ship shook slightly.

"Shields are down to 90% and holding!" Worf called out.

"I believe that's our cue to leave," Picard said, "Ready phasers, and lock onto his weapons and propulsion! Stand by warp nine. Heading seven seven mark twenty. Engage."

The ship seemed to stretch in space for a moment.

"Drop to full impulse! Fire phasers!" Picard barked.

The ship snapped back...into two places.

There now appeared to be two _Enterprise_s, one where it had been, and another dangerously close to Hordak's flagship.

Plasma cannon fire and spatial torpedoes targeted the first _Enterprise_. The fire, enough to level cities, had no effect. For an instant the crews couldn't understand it.

The second _Enterprise_ moved past the battleship, climbing over it with a nacelle barely clearing the smaller ship's gun turrets. Energy collected along a strip of metal that ran around the underside of its saucer section. Two beams of light sprouted from the strip, one cutting a neat gap in their port engines, and the other drew a line up the port side of the ship, mangling the nose and ruining the torpedo launchers.

Internal explosions blew the battleship into a cartwheeling spin.

Most of the ships escorting the battleship were too slow to turn, their size working against them, but a squadron of small ships were able to come about and pursue the Federation vessel.

"Get us out of here! Warp seven! Engage!" Picard barked.

The starship leveled out, stretched out into the distance, and sped off. It vanished in a flash of light, and the planet, ships, and stars on the left side of the holodeck disappeared. There was only the _Enterprise-D_ traveling at warp speed.

The lights came back on, and the hologram faded out.

"That was our first formal encounter with the Gercid Empire," Emerson spoke, "as you can imagine, this was not conducive for further negotiations."

Catra scoffed, and rolled her eyes.

"That's not _our _Hordak!" Entrapta exclaimed.

Everyone, including the Etherians, turned to stare at her. She didn't seem perturbed.

"Ours is a clone," she explained. "He told me. And this one is bigger than him. That must be Horde Prime, or…" she rubbed her chin. "Maybe one of his brothers…? I don't know, I bet I could ask him…"

"Clone?" Emerson asked, curious.

Captain Hayes and Commander Matthias looked at each other. Hayes mouthed a question, and Matthias shrugged.

Entrapta nodded. "Yeah. He said there's loads of them."

Catra snorted. "That's stupid," she said.

"No, it's true," Entrapta waved a hand. "Hordak told me all about it."

"Why would he tell you that?" Hayes asked, baffled. He knew that Catra, Scorpia and Entrapta had all been working with the Horde, but from the uncomfortable looks on Catra and Scorpia's faces, they hadn't heard this information before.

"Entrapta's-um-" Scorpia glanced at Catra.

"Hordak's my lab partner!" Entrapta piped up happily.

"...what?" Hayes, Adora, and Glimmer all said at the same time.

Catra rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"Yeah, he's been my lab partner for a few weeks! We've been working together on some secret projects!"

"What kind of secret projects?" Hayes asked.

"A fusion reactor, but that's nothing too special. That's how we met actually, he was using uninsulated cables."

"What else?" Hayes was eager, but trying to keep himself controlled.

Entrapta hesitated, furrowing her brow, "I'm afraid I don't know proper Federation terminology for the technology. I _could_ try to describe it, but it's the principle of the thing-"

"And I'm sure he wouldn't want any of the Horde's enemies to know about it!" Catra interrupted, "so don't say anything, Entrapta!"

"But-!"

Catra took one step, raising one hand slightly, and immediately phasers were on her.

"Just don't say anything!" She snarled, "it's none of their business! Hordak would be mad if you told these people!"

Entrapta's eyes widened, and looked between Captain Hayes and Catra.

"I...okay…"

Hayes grimaced. They may have to question them one at a time. "That's alright, Entrapta, we don't have to discuss it now."

He looked at Emerson, "don't we have more to show them?"

He hoped this next part would make them more willing to believe.

Emerson nodded to Matthias, "Next, we'll show you our records from before loss of signal from all Etheria stations, and Colonel Sheri's ship, Planetary Assault Ship _Dokdo_."

The lights dimmed again, and the holodeck activated once again.

This time, it displayed a smaller bridge, more of a V-shape than the curved rectangular bridge of the _Enterprise-D_. There was only one command chair in the center, ahead of which was a large V-shaped console that followed the shape of the bridge. One chair was at the point of the console.

Two more consoles were behind the captain's against the wall. The crew positions were closer to what the Etherians expected, with few standing positions.

Adora's eyes widened, and she looked at Bow and Glimmer.

Bow nodded rapidly, his own eyes massive. Glimmer's jaw was wide. The rest of the princess alliance glanced at each other, not recognizing what was the problem.

There were several personnel in various uniforms operating the vessel, their motions calm but their body language was not.

Two wore uniforms they recognized as Starfleet were different from the current uniforms, and those of the _Enterprise-D_ crew. These were mostly black, closer to the contemporary ones than Picard's crew, but with the turtleneck color and shoulder colors reversed. The shoulders were now red, gold, or blue, while the turtleneck was grey.

Another wore a uniform less smooth than that of Starfleet. They were fatigues that had a grey as the primary color, with white, black, and brown colors for a camouflage effect. Federation Marines.

Several were wearing what looked like street clothes, like they'd just gotten out of bed.

More were working several consoles on the walls, and parts of the forward V-console.

In the command position sat a woman wearing a blue outfit. She had brown skin, blue eyes, and long dark brunette hair tied back into a braid. A golden headpiece wrapped around the nape of her neck and came out to a point above her ears.

There was something odd about her eyes. Her irises were segmented.

Her heart was starting to race, making a pair of tiny circles appear on her neck, and dark lines arc out. Again they seemed unnatural, with black right angles and following her veins with unnatural straightness. Light red scars were loosely connected to them.

Her right hand was tanned strangely, a little lighter than her wrist.

All the crewmembers were battered and covered in dust. The woman in the captain's chair was holding her side, covered in bandages, and coughed as she hit a few controls.

The atmosphere was tense, fearful and anxious. Something was very clearly wrong.

The main viewscreen ahead of the point of the V showed a grid display of space. On it was a display of a solar system, centered around a blue arrow. Arrayed around the system were many blue dots, and a handful of other blue arrows. A group of red arrows were oriented toward the planet, creeping closer and closer.

The woman hit a control, and the display zoomed in, showing even more pursuing the main blue arrow, labeled "_USS_ Dakto".

The red arrows pursuing them seemed to be slowing, with another blue arrow hovering between them and the _Dakto_. It was blinking rapidly, and a small indicator popped up above it. "_USS _Johnston".

Orders and reports filled the air, drowning one another out.

"Sending messages to the 11th Fleet, no response yet-"

"Defense satellite sphere online-"

"What chance do we have-?"

"We're ordering evacuations of the major population centers-"

"All bases are on alert, we're relocating supplies to the bunkers now-"

"What are we going to do about the civilian air traffic-?"

"Does anyone know what the word is on Atlantis-"

"The Naval Patrol is going deep. At least we'll have _something_ to throw at them-"

The helm officer at the front of the V-shape, one of the Starfleet people, turned in their chair, "Colonel? Ma'am? we've managed to keep them at range, and the _Johnston_'s putting up a good fight."

The colonel didn't look at the helm officer, her gaze went back and forth from the viewscreen to her own console.

"Colonel?"

"Understood." she said, "Somebody give me a damage report."

"Navigation's working fine. Sensors got a little cooked, but they're working."

"Forward phaser banks are down," the weapons officer called out, "They're still trying to fix the damage from the last torpedo hit. Engine efficiency's down 30%. Life support's okay. So are the escape pods."

The _Dokdo_ was a warship, but it wasn't meant for combat. Planetary assault ships were large transports designed for carrying troops and supplies for attacking a planet. They had no torpedo launchers of their own, and were primarily armed with phasers designed to shoot down enemy torpedoes, along with a meager pair of anti-ship phasers.

"Colonel?" an officer in one of the chairs behind the captain's chair asked. He wore Marine fatigues, and had pointed ears.

Colonel Mara Sheri glanced back at him, "status?"

The Vulcan Marine looked down at his console, "The 244th Planetary Artillery Regiment is reporting in as ready. Automated defensive measures are online. The 397th and 405th Infantry Brigades have been mobilized and are following dispersal procedures. The 905th Air Force Fighter Group, and all the available elements of the 45th Marine Expeditionary Unit are doing the same."

"What's _un_available?" Sheri asked wearily.

"Most of our equipment is ready for action, however we are missing several key personnel. More than a platoon's worth across all companies. The fighter wing has similar problems."

Sheri looked at him, "We might have to initiate the plan without them, then. We can't afford to wait too long."

The Vulcan officer nodded, but raised an eyebrow.

"Colonel, _Johnston _is getting hit hard. They're not going to last much longer." The helm called out.

Sheri cursed, then turned to the weapons officer, "does our fighter screen still have torpedoes?"

"Yes ma'am, but _Aurora_-class fighters are designed for supporting planetary assaults. They can certainly take on a _couple_ of enemy ships, but they can't fight more than that-"

"I know their limitations perfectly well, ensign. They can still load photons. If they attack fast enough, they might confuse the enemy for a minute."

Sheri pointed at the viewscreen, "send them to give the _Johnston_ some cover. That should slow them down."

The officer didn't respond immediately.

She turned back, "that was an order, ensign!"

"Yes, colonel!"

Sheri drummed her hand on her console for a moment, then pressed a control.

A small screen popped up above her armrest, displaying a figure in a Federation flight suit in an enclosed cockpit.

"Tomcat Squadron, this is Colonel Sheri. I need you to buy us some time, lieutenant. You get me?"

The pilot simply nodded, "_Roger that, ma'am. We can do some damage before it's over._"

Sheri nodded back, "Good luck."

Six blue icons moved from their station around the one representing Sheri's ship. They passed between the flickering dot of the _Johnston_ and the red of the enemy. The _Saber-_class escort started moving again.

"Fighters engaging the enemy." the weapons officer called out.

Sheri nodded. She watched the scanners with barely a blink.

The distance between the red dots and the _Dokdo _grew.

Beside the Etherians in the holodeck, Captain Hayes' expression was grim, fire burned in his eyes.

In the recording, the colonel winced, and held her side.

"Colonel, we're getting a priority-one message from Greyskull Command, the Crystal Castle." the comms officer said.

"Put it through. Main screen."

Onscreen was a large control room built like a theater. The construction was very similar to that of the Crystal Castle, if taken care of better. A series of stepped ledges ran down the chamber, but where audience members would be in a theater there were instead rows and rows of computer displays and consoles, manned by a variety of creatures all wearing similar uniforms and insignia. Starfleet, Federation Marines, and a new uniform with dark green digital camouflage colors. Federation Army soldiers.

In center focus in one of the higher consoles beside a human woman in Marine fatigues was a woman dressed in a long flowing blue dress. She was humanoid, but was not human. She was a betazoid, and clearly a civilian.

"Colonel, the governor insisted." the human said, looking between the screen and the betazoid.

"That's alright, Captain," Sheri motioned, "Get back to work."

Sheri narrowed her gaze at the betazoid, and began, "Governor Gunden-"

"Colonel Sheri, what is the meaning of this?" the governor demanded, "I've got division heads all over the place telling me your soldiers are seizing almost every project we have! In particular, Project Eternia!"

Sheri beat a fist against the arm of her chair, "look at that threat board, Gunden! I assume you have one left of the screen I'm on! Do you see those red arrows?! Etheria is about to come under attack, and it's my job to keep this planet safe!"

"By activating an experimental project that could very well doom us all?!" the governor snapped, "Colonel, you don't know what you're doing!"

"I am defending this planet by any means necessary, governor." Sheri said coolly, "the fleet is too far away, and we have too few ships available. The defense grid is incomplete, and it won't stand up to a Dominion attack, especially not without ships. All I've got are a few Army garrison forces and my reinforced Marine Expeditionary Unit to defend this planet with. This planet and its technology means too much to the Federation, so I can't destroy everything and run. I _won't_ destroy this planet. I _won't_ fall back again. I _won't_ let anyone else die!"

But how do you know it's the Dominion?" Gunden demanded, "Those ships were only traveling at warp 4.5, maybe warp 5! You know the Dominion-"

"I know, Hope! Damn it, I know! But can we afford to take that chance? Look at those engines of theirs, what other military has ships that can move that fast at impulse? I don't know why they were going so slow, maybe their main ship was damaged or something. Maybe they're only moving as fast as the slowest ship. Or, they're being slowed down by a supply tender, because they might be a long-range battle group for deep patrol and strike operations!"

"But-"

Sheri leaned forward in her seat, "Governor Gunden, even if we can hold, one of them will still get away and report in! We don't have the ships to chase down all of theirs. And I don't think Starfleet will be able to respond anytime soon. We can't let them know we're here. We can't let them get away. _We have to hide_!"

"Colonel...Mara," Light Hope said, leaning close to the console and microphone, her voice softening somewhat, "We can't do this. You _kno_w what the project can do! There's got to be something else we can do!"

"I _know _the risks!"

"If you do Mara, you know it's a matter of last resort! We need to verify-"

Sheri groaned, and held her side, the scars on her neck flaring. "We can't wait! They're coming on fast! They're getting more and more data as they get closer and closer. They'll find us, they'll see what we're doing, the operation will be compromised! If this planet falls, the Federation is done."

"I know that. But we'll be discovered sooner or later! Can't we hold them off for now, buy time to finish the system, and activate it later?"

"They'll send a dedicated fleet. They won't stop until the biggest threat to them is gone. Etheria is their worst nightmare. Project Eternia, Project Recharge, Project Vengeance, Qwib-Qwib, the terraforming systems, everything here is a big threat to them. All of our old tricks, the things from World War III, from before the Time of Awakening, so many of our old weapons are being brought back here. They're the _only_ things we _have_ to stop the Dominion. Even if they're not the Doms, we can't let them get our tech!"

The helm officer spoke up, "Colonel, _Johnston _is disengaging. Their shields and torpedo launchers are down, and they're venting atmosphere."

The colonel glanced at her weapons officer, who shook their head. "No sign of the Tomcats."

Sheri sighed, and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She looked at the governor, "Light, we're at the end of our ropes. Starfleet has been gutted, our armies are in retreat across a hundred worlds, and now our only chance at victory is under threat."

She looked at the helm officer, then at her own displays, "we're burning out our engines getting down there. Our fighters are gone. _Dokdo_ doesn't have many other weapons, we've been hit already-"

Sheri moaned again, gritting her teeth and beating her fist against her console quietly, "I'm not sure if you heard, but the captain's dead! I'm not even sure we can make landfall with the state of this thing!"

"The landing gear is damaged, ma'am," the helm officer reported.

"This ship is one of the keys to making sure we'll make it, Hope. We're gonna have to bring her in no matter what."

Sheri looked at the viewscreen, "this ship's a perfect description for our situation! Hell, look at _me_!"

She gestured to her eyes, and for some reason her legs, and the golden piece on the back of her head.

"I lost my legs for the war effort, and _it still wasn't enough_. This isn't just one planet at stake, this is us. All of us. All 150 races of the Federation. Humanity, Vulcans, Betazoids, Tellarites, Andorians, Klingons, Gorn, Kzin, Caitian...the Federation is at stake. Those bastards are going to wipe us out, stamp us out, erase us all, and force those who remain to manufacture Ketracel white until the sun explodes. They'll make examples of us, those who dared to resist; they'll hit us with a plague or kill all our children to show us who's boss. Everything we've built for the last three-hundred years is going to be destroyed if we don't do something! We can't let them do this! We _have _to hide. We _have_ to."

Light Hope's expression softened, pleading. She reached out a little toward the viewscreen, "Mara...we _can't do this_. We can't do this to all our people! Eternia is dangerous, _too_ dangerous. It runs all around the planet! The blasted thing isn't even finished! It could destroy us! We don't have the resources, the staff, the orbital facilities...we don't have _any_ of the equipment we need! If we activate it now, it could destroy little we do have. Don't you remember what happened to the Genesis planet?"

Sheri raised her own hand to match the governor's in the air, as if they were touching. Her voice softened, "It won't be as bad as that. Enough of us will survive."

"Certainly, Mara, certainly. A handful of bunkers will remain, the submarines. But will our databanks? Will the prototypes? Will the very things you're protecting survive? Will we even be able to turn Eternia off? Or will we end up stuck in subspace for good? Mara, think about what you're doing! There _has_ to be an alternative!"

Sheri looked back at her threat board. The _Johnston_ was being pursued by enemy contacts, and trying to leave as quickly as possible. An arrow representing an _Intrepid_-class, USS _Dauntless,_ was moving past Etheria orbit. They did not have many larger vessels. The only one of equal tonnage to the _Dauntless_ was the USS _Calypso_, a _Centaur_-class on the opposite side of the system. _Calypso_ was dueling with another enemy unit, and trying to keep them from destroying two more Federation ships of the same class as the _Dokdo_.

"Tell _Dauntless_ if she's not planning to do so already, pick off the enemy's flanks and take the heat off the _Johnston_! Don't get themselves killed!" Sheri ordered.

"The captain signals affirmative, sir!"

Sheri looked at Light Hope, "They can't hold out. _Dauntless_ can put up a good fight, but she's just one ship and _Johnston_ is just a destroyer. We only have a few more ships."

"Mara, we-"

"We have a _Nova_-class science vessel on station, Light. Oh, and we have an _Oberth_-class. A hundred year old science ship. That's _very_ effective firepower," her voice dripped with sarcasm, "The _Dauntless_ and the _Calypso_ are the only big warships we've got! _Calypso_'s all the way out on the other side of the solar system! We don't have a choice!"

"Yes we do!"

"No, we don't! I can't lose anyone this time! I can't lose anyone else! I can't lose you!"

Light Hope didn't visibly react. "Mara…"

"No choice…" Sheri muttered, barely audible to the recording and avoiding the other woman's eyes, "No choice. Never a choice. Never any choice."

"Colonel?" the vulcan asked.

Sheri scowled, turning her chair to face him. "I'm going to win this time. I've got to. It's my job, T'Kan. We've got to win this for the Federation. They're not going to beat me again!"

She tried to stand, then groaned and sat back down.

The ship shook suddenly with the discharge of the stern phaser banks.

"We've got another enemy fleet inbound! 50,000 klicks and closing! They're firing torpedoes!"

On the strategic view, orange dots were traveling outward from a new formation of red contacts, seeking out targets.

"Red-line the engines! It doesn't matter so long as we get there and the ship doesn't explode!"

"The starbase and all available orbital defense platforms are returning fire. They report they don't have many torpedoes to spare." The Vulcan reported, "Moonbase Alpha's defenses are out of range. Orbital defense platforms are supporting the science vessels."

As he spoke, the display of the solar system showed orange dots from the starbase colliding with red contacts, making both blink out.

Sheri glared at the sensors. There were three total enemy flotillas. And probably more on the way. "How do they keep getting so close? Did they warp in? What happened to the early warning systems?"

"I'm not sure, Colonel," the helm replied, "sensors are still cooked and the enemy's been shooting down our comm satellites. Sensors could be telling us the entire Dom fleet is on the system's outer edge and we wouldn't know."

Sheri cursed, wondering how she could forget the sensor array damage.

She looked up at the viewscreen again, locking eyes with Light Hope. She motioned to T'Kan, and he put the transmission on hold.

Sheri slowly got to her feet, groaning and holding her side, as she pulled a long familiar sword. She stumbled forward a little unsteadily, and had to lean against one of the nearby consoles for support.

An officer tried to offer help, but was waved off.

"I'm alright," the colonel said, "Can't and won't do this unless I'm on my feet."

She pushed herself off, then held out the sword, "For the honor of Grayskull."

In a flash of light, the colonel's battered form was gone. In its place stood an 8-foot tall warrior with long hair and dressed in an white and gold uniform.

Her eyes were perfect, gazing about the control center with determination and a little bit of wonder at seeing the world through natural eyes again.

She turned about, retrieved something from the captain's chair, then gestured for T'Kan. He got up from his console, and followed her to two stations in the main console. They were about two meters apart, no one person would be able to reach both of them. The stations didn't appear standard.

They each went to one. Sheri hit a control, "This is Colonel Sheri, USS _Dokdo_, online. All stations, report in."

On the wall, various video screens appeared, with various individuals in Federation uniforms appearing. There were two in each window. Each sounded off.

"_Greyskull control, online._"

"_Bright Moon control, online_."

"_Atlantis control, online._"

"_Arkhangelsk, control online._"

"_Pompeii control, online._"

"_Detroit control, online._"

"_Machu Picchu control, online._"

"_Los Angeles control, online_."

Sheri nodded, and pulled out an orange key, "Begin key insertion."

There were scans of each individual, and their keys, to be sure they were who they said they were and had said keys.

Once complete, a panel unfurled on each console, revealing keyholes. All inserted them, and in time with their counterpart beside them, counted off, "one, two, three!"

The keys turned. More panels unfurled. Access codes were entered into keypads. Commands were input.

Another panel popped open on the _Dokdo's_ bridge, much larger than the key slots. Sheri lifted the sword by the handle, and stuck it inside. "Primary key insertion complete."

Sheri hit a control, putting the connection with Light Hope back on a small display to her left.

The governor looked up, "Mara...if...if…"

Sheri spoke in a low voice, "Hope. I can't bear to see them win again. I can't lose anyone else like this again, not when I can still do something."

The colonel input commands.

On the main viewscreen, a countdown appeared, and initiated. Alarms blared. The LCARS voice spoke over them, "_Warning: Eternia Protocols are now in effect. Activation in twenty standard minutes. All personnel are advised to locate shelter immediately. This is not a drill. All space vessels within safety perimeter of planetary surfaces land immediately_. _All vessels beyond safety perimeter evacuate immediately._"

Sheri looked at Light Hope, putting a hand on the screen, "Light…"

Light Hope looked up into the colonel's eyes, and saw tears brimming their edges. She touched the screen back.

"Light... it's the Federation at stake. It's _you_ at stake. It's... it's _her_ at stake. I can't let them win again. Too many people have died for me. Forgive me. Please."

"Mara…" Light Hope trailed off.

Sheri closed her eyes again, holding her side once again but there appeared to be no injury in her She-ra form.

She switched off the link. Sheri sat down in the captain's chair, barely fitting back into it now, and stared straight ahead at the timer.

Her She-ra form shimmered and disappeared. She winced immediately, and held her side. The bandages weren't looking good.

She watched the viewscreen, watching their ship crawl painfully toward the planet, toward safety.

Torpedoes were still flying at them, the stern phaser banks working to capacity trying to stop them.

"_Dauntless_ cannot disengage from the new enemy fleet. _Calypso_ is still out of range. Moonbase Alpha defenses still out of range," T'Kan reported calmly.

"Colonel! The enemy is gaining on us!" the helm cried.

Sheri cursed, "Push the engines! Don't hold anything in reserve!"

"The reactors are translucent they're so hot! We're not getting any more out of them!"

"All power to engines, stern shields, and stern phasers! Cut anything you can!"

Suddenly, another blue dot began approaching the _Dokdo_. One warp nacelle heavily damaged, torpedo launchers still down, shields flickering dangerously, the Federation starship _Johnston_ was matching their course.

"Colonel, _the Johnston_-"

"Affirmative." Sheri said.

"...Colonel, the captain of the _Johnston _is blanketing comms with a looping transmission." T'Kan said calmly, "They appear to be using it to jam enemy communications, and to boost morale."

Sheri made a small hand motion.

"Just one sentence. Taffy 3."

Sheri closed her eyes.

The _Johnston_ fired all forward phasers at the enemy. its point defense turrets intercepted torpedoes but insufficient for the numbers being fired at it.

Escape pods blasted out to either side or to the rear, several getting clipped by enemy fire. If they were hit deliberately or not they couldn't tell, there was so much incoming fire.

The shields flared and died within the first few volleys. Some attacks just went _through_ the ship, vaporizing chunks like bullets through cardboard. A warp nacelle was sliced off and dumped plasma into space. A massive hole appeared on the starboard side of the hull, half a dozen torpedoes passing through it.

On the holodeck, Captain Hayes closed his eyes, Commander Matthias looked away, and Emerson glanced at the Etherians.

The ship made an arc as it passed in front of the enemy, and was utterly blasted to pieces.

She kept up the fire for as long as she could, but as powerful as she was, and as individually weak the enemy was, there were still so many ships against one little escort.

_Johnston_ leaned forward, her remaining nacelle obliterated, and spun into a dance of death cut off by the brilliant explosion of her warp core.

The enemy swiftly advanced through her debris field, shouldering aside any unlucky escape pods.

And setting off proximity sensors.

Half a dozen photon torpedoes exploded in a chain along _Johnston_'s last course, knocking the enemy back.

Four more exploded, this time with a brilliant orange-tinned blast wave, knocking out several unhurt ships and crippling those already damaged.

A ragged cheer went up through the bridge.

"Their tubes were down, so they must've dumped them out like mines! And a few photonic shockwaves for good measure!" a Starfleet officer cried.

"Everybody lock it down!" Sheri snapped, "Did any escape pods make it?"

An officer tapped at their controls. Their shoulders slumped, "A few."

Sheri shook her head, cursing under her breath. She held her side, sweat on her face. Her gaze narrowed as something shifted in her mind.

The distance between the _Dokdo _and the enemy grew again. Back to where it had been a few minutes ago. One step forward, two steps back.

The ship crept closer and closer to Etheria.

"Colonel, Greyskull Command is hailing us." T'Kan called out.

"Don't answer." Sheri said, watching the viewscreen.

The bridge shook again. A panel blasted off the ceiling, sparks went flying. There was a flutter in the deck, a booming echo far behind the aft hatch. A distant scream reverberated through the bulkheads.

"Life support just took a hit!"

"Engine's overheating! We're approaching a core breach!"

"Vent drive plasma! Kill the engines!"

The ship's acceleration halted, still soaring along its previous course, as a light-blue column of what appeared to be smoke trailed from the vessel's sides.

Sheri hammered her armrest, "This is Colonel Sheri! All hands, abandon ship! Repeat, all hands, abandon ship!"

The bridge crew all looked at each other, then the marines scrambled for the aft hatch.

"You heard the colonel! Abandon ship!" T'Kan said in as strong a voice as a Vulcan could possibly manage to the rest.

Many of the Starfleet officers, after a moment's hesitation, moved out as well.

The helm officer turned to look at the others, then at the colonel, still in her seat. They turned forward and continued inputting the controls. A handful of the other Starfleet staff looked at each other, then went back to their stations as well.

"Lieutenant-"

"I can cool her down enough to land, colonel! We're not leaving her until you do!"

"Lieutenant-!"

They twisted back again, "Colonel, with all due respect, you're a ground pounder, not a sailor! I know my ship! And again, with all due respect, we all know this song and dance! It's Starfleet tradition _and_ regulations! Captain goes down with the ship, but the bridge makes sure the captain gets out at the last minute! The top officers in the chain of command leave the ship last!"

They twisted back forward.

T'Kan looked at the colonel, then returned to his station.

"Captain, Greyskull Command is calling again." he reported, "she's asking for you. She says it's urgent."

Sheri looked at her displays. The icon flashed over and over again.

She glanced at the countdown timer.

The colonel accepted the call.

"Mara!" Light Hope's eyes were filled with anger and despair, "Don't do this! I can sense what you're planning, don't do it!"

Sheri looked her in the eyes.

"Goodbye, Light."

She cut the link, and sat back in her seat. The left side of her chest was darkening. Something was running down her side and pooling on her seat.

Sheri held her side, and took her hand away, looking at it. There was no emotion in her eyes, no reaction. She made a bloodstained fist.

The escape pods were leaving rapidly, avoiding enemy fire.

They were close to Etheria now. This must've been her plan all along. Without the ship's hull to soak up enemy fire and get them there fast enough, the escape pods would've been sitting ducks. Now they could make a break for re-entry.

"Are the transporters still online? How are the evac groups?"

"Transporters are still online," the helm officer reported, "All evac groups are through. I've got shields back up, too. She'll make it through reentry if we don't take any more bad hits."

"Good." Sheri said. Then stumbled to a console, and hit a few controls.

"Colonel!" T'Kan cried, moving toward her just before the blue shimmer of the transporter made him and the rest of the staff on the bridge disappear.

Sheri sat down at the helm, entering commands, "Computer, are there any personnel remaining?"

"_One life sign remaining. Deck 1._"

"I need you to…" she coughed, catching her breath, "double-check my numbers, make sure I'm not gonna crash us into a mountain."

"_Affirmative. Projected flight path is clear of significant obstacles. Warning; inertial dampener failure anticipated. Propulsion insufficient for crew-survivable deceleration. re-entry angle is too steep for crew survivability._"

"Will the ship make it?"

"_Warning; landing systems destroyed. Ship cannot land._"

"I know that, damn it! Will you at least come down intact?"

"_Affirmative. Chance of crew survivability is at 0%._"

"Good enough." she said.

Sheri painfully shambled back to the captain's chair.

"No choice." she muttered. "Computer, transfer all essential systems to my chair. Shunt all remaining life support power to vital systems, and keep one transporter charge ready."

The spacecraft jolted with turbulence, and the colonel rocked back and forth, hard.

She leaned against her armrest, groaning and some of her composure started fleeing.

She choked back a sob, but the observers couldn't tell if it was just from the pain. Sheri continued hitting controls.

A console beeped rapidly. Sheri tapped a control, and an audio transmission came through.

"_Greyskull Control, Colonel Sheri, this is _Dauntless _actual. Do not activate Eternia Protocols! Repeat, do _not _activate Eternia Protocols! Abort activation! Abort Eternia_!"

Sheri tapped the control, "_Dauntless_, this is _Dokdo_, Colonel Sheri commanding. What are you doing?"

"_Colonel, we discovered-_"

The holodeck froze. Like a skipping record, bits came through, and Mara's simulation twitched back and forth, moments from across several seconds.

"_Serenia_..._portal_…"

As if a light switch had been flicked, darkness swallowed the bridge, and everything was silent.


	5. Chapter 5

The silence continued. The only light came from the holodeck console.

Then...it went out as well.

There was the sound of a scuffle, yells and cries.

Suddenly, the lights came back on in the room. Dim, deep red lights cast everything in an eerie glow. Everyone was muttering, looking around in disorientation.

An ominous low long sound slowly pulsed out through the ship, and red strips of light along the wall pulsed in time with it.

"_Red alert, red alert_…" the computer intoned.

"I got it! I got it!" Entrapta yelled happily.

Adora immediately sought eyes on Catra, and found her attacking Hayes. She had jumped on his back, shoving him against the console and had him in a headlock.

"Get _off _me! Matthias, help!"

Matthias was nursing his jaw, covered in blood, making noises of pain himself. Evidently he had already tried.

He tried to grab Catra and pull her off. Without even looking she slammed an elbow into his eye, and drove her foot into his chest, knocking the XO to the ground.

Adora rushed forward, followed by security guards, and Catra glanced at them all with an irritated expression.

"_Scorpia, do I have to kill everyone_?!"

"Huh? Oh!"

That was all Adora heard before everything in her vision blurred, and she found herself under a pile of Starfleet security guards. And Bow on top.

"Why is it always me she throws around…?" he moaned.

"Stop getting near her then!" Adora grunted, straining to get out from underneath.

"_Using people as bowling pins, nice idea,_" Catra yelled, "_Now help me with this big idiot!_"

Hayes was coughing and choking, spitting all over the console and falling backwards. Catra made a yelp sound when they hit the ground.

Scorpia scrambled to pick up a phaser, before Glimmer jumped in front of her, fists hesitantly raised.

"Back for a rematch? Sorry, I'm a bit busy!"

She fired the phaser at her, stepped aside to dodge several of Frosta's ice spears, then turned her weapon on the other princesses.

Perfuma went down immediately, but Mermista and Frosta dove out of the way. Frosta strained to summon another ice spear from the moisture in the air, but could only manage an icicle.

"Great, now I can't even do anything." Mermista grunted. She looked around at how few people on their side were still standing and groaned loudly.

"C'mon! Let's go find help!"

She tugged Frosta by the collar toward the door.

They jumped back briefly when Scorpia fired a wild blast, sending sparks shooting from the burn in the door, then dove through as it opened.

"Security...intruder alert...holodeck 1…" Matthias gargled, tapping his combadge.

He held the whole side of his face now, and struggled to get his feet under him. He tapped his badge again, repeated his order, but there was still no answer.

Catra got out from under Hayes, and kicked him in the gut. She grabbed his combadge, and snatched Matthias' away. She kicked him for good measure as well...and immediately regretted it. It was like kicking a brick wall.

"Yargh!" She roared, comically jumping back and holding her foot, "what are you made out of?!"

"Ouch…" Matthias moaned, not answering.

Adora spotted another phaser on the ground near her.

The men and one woman on top of her were so heavy, she just couldn't get out from under them fast enough!

She pulled herself out, crawling rapidly toward the pistol and a familiar hand picked it up.

Catra stood smirking, with the phaser in hand. The glow of the red lights made her look even more ominous than the last time they'd been in this situation.

Slowly, her hands up, Adora got to her feet.

"You know, I've never seen anyone melted with this thing before. Apparently, that's what they can do."

Catra fiddled with the knob on the phaser a little, making it whine in higher and higher pitches.

"So just do it! Just kill me and get it over with!" Adora snarled, "If you hate me that much, if you just want to see me die, just _do it_!"

"Well, can't do it _now_, I don't want to make Entrapta sad!"

"Catra?! Antagonize the enemy later maybe?" Scorpia asked, holding two phasers now.

"Right! Entrapta, great distraction! What's the plan now!"

Entrapta grinned, "get everyone to a shuttle!"

Her grin wavered, "I meant to disable their small arms, force fields, and aerosol intruder countermeasures...I guess I went over the top. Don't know why there was a red alert _before_ you tried to strangle the nice captain man."

"Yeah, I'd like to know the answer to that too." Another voice said.

Catra whirled about with her phaser at the ready, and saw the only other person still standing, or rather standing up from behind the holodeck console.

It was the counselor.

He quickly put up his hands, "I'm not armed, I have no intention of trying to fight you. I'd rather not get stunned, if you please."

"I might just shoot you 'cuz you're annoying."

"Yes, you can." The counselor stared her down, very calmly with a rather neutral expression.

"You said that like you were going to say more."

"I wasn't. I'm just asking that you please not shoot me. It's the polite thing to do, if nothing else."

Catra pointed the phaser at the ceiling, "well, we do need someone to carry the hostages. And Scorpia will be busy covering them, so…"

There was coughing from the other side of the console, beside Emerson.

Hayes was helping Matthias to his feet, red blood staining the side of the Gorn's face. It dripped onto the deck plating, despite his hand. He kept blinking his left eye, the flesh around it already looking bruised.

"She nearly knocked out one of my teeth!" Matthias grunted, wheezing a bit, "Damn it, _ow_!"

"Captain, commander, it would seem we're hostages." Emerson informed them calmly.

Hayes looked up at the phasers aimed at him, "Ah...shit."

"Language, captain." Matthias said, spitting more blood onto the deck.

Catra stepped forward, "Bowman, get your guys up. Have them carry everyone who's stunned. You're all coming with us."

"Force captain, we're not going anywhere. Some of my people need medical attention-"

Catra tuned the phaser to a higher frequency, "We've got perfectly fine medical facilities back home. None of your people are that badly hurt, and I know for a fact that his teeth will grow back if there's a problem. Now shut up and quit stalling. I'm gonna start stunning more people for you to carry if you don't."

"There's no way you're getting off this ship! And we're not helping you!"

Catra glared at Hayes, and pointed at the emergency lights still flashing. The room was still bathed in red emergency light, "I'd say your people have more problems."

She turned her phaser on Adora without breaking eye contact, "Do what I say, or I start killing hostages, starting with her."

Entrapta looked alarmed at this. Scorpia only briefly glanced over before returning her aim at the piles of stunned or incapacitated people.

Adora glared at Catra, her fists balled up. "Captain, don't do it."

"Which one, Adora?" Catra sneered, "there's three captains in here."

Emerson raised an eyebrow. "Captain Hayes, I recommend we try to avoid more weapons fire. We do need to find out what's happening on the rest of the ship, and that requires having a pulse."

"Thank you, lieutenant commander." Hayes growled, then huffed in frustration.

He patted Matthias' shoulder and moved around the console to the pile of guards, pulling Bow off of them.

"C'mon everyone, get up. Relax, we're getting out of this."

One man toward the bottom moaned, holding his chest and wheezing. He struggled to take a deep breath.

The others were bruised, and one held his arm, which was at an odd angle.

"Damn! Force captain, we can't just go without treating my people!"

Hayes rounded on Catra despite the phaser she held, "a broken arm is bad enough but a broken rib?! Take me, but leave them! You've already got plenty of hostages with your princesses and me!"

Catra snarled, "Shut up! Just stop talking! Your shuttles are like lifeboats, yeah? So you have medkits? There, problem solved! Heck, I could just stun their arm and that guy's chest, couldn't I?"

She even started to mess with the settings again before Hayes facepalmed, "that's not how that works!"

"Whatever! Get them all moving! Adora, you carry Glimmy, Bow, you carry the perfume girl!"

"What about-?" Entrapta began, but Catra held up a hand.

"Don't worry, we're coming back for the other two later. We might run into them on the way even. Right now we have to get off this tub!"

Catra stalked toward the door, it opened, and a loud rumble resounded through the corridor.

The main lights outside in the hall were dead too, lit only by the red emergency lights.

"What the hell did they do to my ship…?" Hayes grunted.

As the group of hostages moved, physical bulkheads crashed shut, with more clanging further and further away through the hull. Some closed almost at random, others more strategically, each one decreasing chance of rescue further and further. But the rest of the ship had troubles of its own.

**XXXXX**

The _Belleau Wood_'s computer processor, a Daystrom Institute B-66 model computer, was not sentient. While there was a program stored in the medical database that could theoretically become sentient, the _Akira_-class starship's computer had no soul itself. It was, however, self-preserving, and very intelligent.

As it went about its job, conducting millions of tiny tasks in the time it would take for a human to put a pencil to paper, the Daystrom detected a strange anomaly in the warp core systems.

If it could think, which it both could and could not, it would have thought this unusual, but not too out of the ordinary.

The B-66 assigned some of its processing power to examine and deal with the anomaly. It did not consider the anomaly a threat.

The program sent to investigate reported back.

**ALERT: UNAUTHORIZED PROGRAM DETECTED. ANOMALOUS PROGRAM ATTEMPTING TO MODIFY ANTIMATTER INJECTOR VARIABLES**

More anomalies appeared across the board, starting in engineering systems but flowing steadily outwards. Replicators, sonic showers, turbolifts, power management, armories...the list began to grow, and continued to grow.

Some were actively rewriting systems already, others were simply dormant, waiting.

The Daystrom could not discern intent, it could only judge based on action. The program had no credentials, nothing that would mark it as a proper software update. It did not know this intruder. It did not know what it was doing, it did not care, it had no feelings. It had one directive. Protect the ship.

Suddenly, the presence closed pressure doors. Force fields were activated and ventilation variables modified. Crew sent in reports, finding themselves trapped and cut off. These reports were swiftly silenced by the intruder.

The Daystrom sounded red alert. It sent out more specific alerts to the engineering and operation centers of the ship, to alert its masters.

Power systems fluctuated, diverting from one system to the next, cutting off many systems.

An officer walked inside the armory as she heard the alert, glancing over the field charging units powering themselves from the wall. She froze.

First one, then two more flashed "danger" icons.

The officer dove back through the door, slapping an emergency control. The door shut and a blue shimmer went over the entire wall. The corridor shook as the mobile charging units exploded, barely contained by the structural integrity fields and emergency force fields.

The port side forward dorsal phaser array suddenly overcharged with energy. Many modules burned out, and one in the center, the focus of all that energy, released it in a violent eruption into space, ripping open the hull. Several crewmembers in the hallway parallel to the array were flung about, and found themselves looking out into space, the emergency force field flickering dangerously. They barely escaped before the atmosphere blew out.

The B-66 began copying unaffected system software and quarantining it from the invaders. Other countermeasures went online to contain the intruders, and rescue the compromised systems.

But the intruder was powerful. It beat back attempts to dislodge it, and pushed back. More power systems overloaded and exploded across the ship.

A computer-controlled valve suddenly opened, and toxic coolant blasted into the local phaser array control rooms. The handful of crew inside staggered out, coughing and gasping, their lungs burning.

In a rec room, staff got to their feet at the sound of the alert. Several stumbled, coughing, and any still sitting slumped over, unconscious. The others fell one by one, a handful managing to make it to the door.

A security officer passing by was surprised by a Tellarite stumbling out of the room, slowly filling with a white gas.

The Tellarite gasped out something, before falling unconscious in the officer's arms. She tapped her combadge, "Damage control, this is Anders! We've got anesthesia gas in the deck 6 portside rec room! Repeat, we've got an anesthesia gas leak! Damage control, do you copy?"

More defenses went online as the slow organics responded and took the gloves off the B-66. With satisfaction had it possessed feelings, the Daystrom halted the enemy and saved the life support system. But not undamaged.

And it was only one victory.

The automated systems recognized the signature of the foe.

The ship was losing. The enemy was pushing back, more and more systems were becoming compromised.

It had to start cutting areas loose. Rather than waste resources to fight a losing battle to try and save the compromised systems, the B-66 isolated them from other systems and let them die.

**XXXXX**

The main lights were still operating to some capacity on the bridge of the _Belleau Wood_. Lieutenant Commander Zh'Reed, currently at the captain's position, rose to her feet, "Operations, are you absolutely certain?"

Lights were flickering on consoles all over the bridge. Some were completely dark. On the viewscreen was displayed a schematic of long-range sensors. Several blue dots were arranged around Etheria, with a large purple dot moving rapidly toward them.

The bridge was a somewhat oval shape, arranged in a descending arrangement from the back toward the viewscreen. The helm was in the traditional position ahead of the captain and the XO, closest to the viewscreen. Behind it, to either side and slightly ahead of the commanding officer's position, were the tactical console on the left and the operations console on the right. They were raised up slightly above the helm and the captain's position.

Against the side walls, a step up from the operations and tactical consoles, were more stations built into the walls, facing to their respective sides. Communications were on the right, science station on the left. Behind the captain and XO's chairs were several consoles in an arc, including an engineering console on the left and the Carrier Air Wing Commander's(CAG) console on the right. In the back of the bridge was a square area with more consoles, and a holographic display set in the center of the area.

At the moment, most of the primary consoles were staffed, with operations, tactical, communications, and CAG positions controlled by their senior officers, but there were several empty, or staffed by whoever happened to be on watch. With Reed commanding, another officer had to take the science station. Their head navigator was elsewhere on the ship, the chief engineer in engineering, and several of the auxiliary stations were not staffed.

Lieutenant Karenza Moore, the ship's operations officer to Reed's right was rapidly tapping the controls.

"_Havoc_ is reporting their screens clear! So's the rest of the battle group!"

"So we're _sure_ it's a sensor ghost?" Reed peered at the green icon on the local space sensors.

"Yes ma'am. _Havoc_ actual is saying she's looking at her own display personally."

Reed nodded hesitantly, "And we're _positive_ their sensors are working correctly."

"Yes ma'am."

Taking one last look at the Dominion battleship icon flashing on their sensors, Reed turned back to the bridge, "Give me a detailed damage report then."

The viewscreen's display of sensors was replaced with a spinning diagram of the starship's inner workings. It was a silhouette of the ship with a framework overlaid with indicator lights representing systems. More and more lights were turning from green to red.

"We're still getting status updates. The dilithium matrix has been manually decoupled," Moore reported, "The warp core is safe. We've got those power fluctuations mostly under control."

"At least the ship's not going to blow. The weapons lockers?"

The weapons officer opposite Moore, Lieutenant Moyra Bevin, turned in her seat, "Any handheld weapons that were plugged into the ship's charging stations are at risk, lieutenant commander. We've got gear in storage, but we're stretched thin. Most of my teams are scattered, stuck behind pressure doors, or on damage control. We've got a gas leak in the forward phaser control room, the portside dorsal array's disabled-"

"I can see that." Reed said, gesturing in the direction of the hull breach. They'd seen it go up on the viewscreen, "What else is wrong?"

"Torpedo launchers are offline. Shields are functioning, but I'm cutting them to a minimum. I'm also taking remaining phasers offline. We don't want whatever this is to get ahold of them."

Moore continued to call out, "Fire suppression systems are malfunctioning, we've had to take damage control teams off other problems. Ventilation on decks 6, 8, and 9 is malfunctioning. All but one turbolift are offline. Holodecks have been safely shut down. We've got faults all over the place. We're isolating uncompromised systems as fast as we can."

"Navigation systems have been compromised! Shutting them down!" The helm officer called out.

"Shutting down sensors. We're not going to have much left." the officer in Reed's normal science station reported.

The diagram on the viewscreen had a majority of red lights now.

"Understood," Reed nodded and turned to the communications officer, "Comms, tell the fleet to minimize all communications and cut all computer links if they haven't already. Tell them not to transport anyone either, shuttle transfer only. We don't know if this thing can ride transporter beams."

Reed turned to Tactical, "What's the status on the hostages?"

"They're still moving. Sorry, ma'am, I can't get anyone close enough, even when I can track them. Force fields are still out." Lieutenant Bevin grimaced, "The ventilation malfunctions means we can't use anesthesia gas."

"Operations, what do we have on the virus? Where'd it come from?"

"It was introduced aboard ship, ma'am. Sometime in the last 24 hours."

"Get that Starfleet Intelligence jerk on the horn," Reed ordered, rotating her chair back toward the comms station, "We need to know what this thing is."

"ma'am, with all due respect, could it really have been the _Etherians_ who did this? They can barely get electricity working, let alone isolinear circuits!" Moore pointed out skeptically.

Reed shook her head, "It could be anything. We don't know what caused this thing. It could have been wirelessly downloaded from one of the old facilities if one of our recon flights passed close enough. Who knows what kind of weapons they were developing here? Probably some sort of virus meant to Trojan horse itself onto auxiliary craft, and then download onto the main starship and take it down."

"_Engineering to bridge. Bridge, do you read me?_"

Reed tapped a control on her chair, "This is Reed. Go ahead, Karsten."

The chief engineer audibly took a breath, "_The fires are under control. The warp core is still safe. That's just about the only good news. Most of our systems have been compromised down here. But lieutenant commander, we've got an even bigger emergency!_"

"What now?" Reed said, trying hard to keep the groaning out of her voice.

"_It's a Borg virus._"

The andorian's blood ran cold. The entire bridge fell silent. Everyone looked to one another.

Eyes turned toward the lieutenant commander in the center of the bridge. Her expression was determined, a solid rock in a stormy sea.

"Copy, Karsten. Are you certain about this?"

"_...For the most part, bridge. The code looks like the stuff the _Enterprise-D _picked up during the first encounter, and it's breaking through firewalls like nothing _we've _ever made. And I was on the _Budapest _during the Battle of Sector 001. Trust me, I know Borg when I see it. This is a Borg virus._"

"Stand by, engineering." Reed said, and walked over to the science station.

"Ma'am, he's right," the substitute science officer commented, and pulled up an isolated example of the virus. On the same screen, she showed a virtually identical copy, "See? I recommend we tell the flotilla, get them to send in help, scan local space, and call for reinforcements."

The normal beeping and chirping of the bridge ran loud in Reed's ears. Still no one spoke.

Her antenna twitched.

Reed shook her head, and tapped her combadge, "Copy that, engineering."

The crew went back to their jobs, all talking at once, all singularly focused on trying to fight the virus.

Reed went back to the center of the bridge, "Alright, people! Let's stay calm. We don't know for sure this is Borg. But this _is_ a threat to the ship. We're going to follow proper procedure on fighting a virus. Alert your departments, brief everyone on the situation. Let's work the problem. Let's not make things worse by guessing. Operations, continue with analog protocols."

She looked at Tactical, "Lieutenant, keep your security teams on damage control; without the ship there's no point in rescuing the hostages. But try and pull together a team."

"Most of the replicators are offline. We won't be able to make much anti-Borg ordnance."

Reed grimaced, "At this point, I'll take anything. If you have to make _pikes_ I'll take them."

The lieutenant commander glanced back at the CAG's console, where a lieutenant commander in a red turtleneck sat, "Lieutenant Commander Halina, ground any of your ships that interfaced with the main computer in the last 24 hours. Don't let _anyone_ take off. Tell the Combat Space Patrol guys to power down and wait for rescue."

The CAG, the right side of her face covered in old scars, nodded, "I've still got some ships scouting the planet. I've already lost contact with one. She's completely _missing_. I'll tell the rest of them to get into a stable orbit and power down too."

"Do we have anything dirtside?"

"Negative, not counting my missing bird. We've still got people on the surface though."

"Comms, tell the flotilla to take over surface operations," the andorian instructed, and walked the short distance to the helm, "Ensign, make sure our orbit is stable, then shut down all propulsion systems."

Reed moved back to the science station and leaned in, glancing at her substitute and speaking in a low voice, "Lieutenant, something's not right. This _can't_ be Borg. Sure it's their normal prey, but there's no other signs. Look at that code. It's almost _identical_ to the Borg code. The code from thirteen years ago? The _Borg_? Why wouldn't they have edited it? _We _take weeks between software updates, and the walking computers barely change anything in a decade?"

"Well, it's not completely identical, ma'am. Look," the woman pointed out a few details on the display, "See, there's differences here, here, and here. That could account for the software updates."

Reed grimaced, "No...that still doesn't look right. What is going on here?"

She looked at the comms console, "Where's our representative from Starfleet intelligence?"

"Internal communications are still being interfered with," the officer replied apologetically.

Reed grimaced, and went back to the center of the bridge, "Tactical, hostages?"

Bevin looked at her display, "Looks like two of the Etherians escaped, ran into the damage control teams on the portside emergency supply locker. We got em."

"How many hostages do the others have?" Reed asked, unable to recall in the flood of other information she had to deal with.

"In total, they've got four of the other Etherians, the whole security team, the counselor, XO, and the skipper."

On the almost-forgotten viewscreen, the display changed to one of a deck schematic. Several dots were moving into a turbolift on deck 6.

"Where are they headed?" Reed kept her outrage under control as she expected the rest of the crew was doing. She walked over to Bevin's console, which displayed a much more detailed view of the deck. The internal security monitor had projections for where people were going, how fast they were moving, information on their weapons, the works.

"They're boarding the functional turbolift. They're headed to...deck 8."

"Deck 8...operations, wasn't the ventilation malfunctioning there, too?"

Lieutenant Moore nodded, "Yes, ma'am, but I don't-"

Reed held up a hand, and glanced at Bevin, "Tactical, you gotta give me something. I've got a feeling they're to blame for all this."

"I don't have anything, ma'am! We're stretched thin as it is!"

Reed growled, and thumped her fist against the tactical console, "At least try and slow them down, damn it!"

Bevin lifted her hands from the display, "Reed, I am _trying_ here! If you thought I could stop them don't you think I'd-!"

Both caught themselves and winced when they locked eyes.

Bevin took a deep breath through gritted teeth, "I'll keep trying...ma'am. My teams are scattered, one makes up part of the hostages, and we can't move anything rapidly. The armory down there is depressurized, we can't trust _any_ of the phasers hooked into the shuttles, we're critically low on staff, and the turbolifts are down. I'd go down there _myself_ if they weren't. Without non-lethal weaponry, we risk friendly fire, and we don't know if the phasers the Etherians stole are functional or not."

Her console chirped, and she tapped a control, "...It seems they are. The Caitian just stunned a guard."

Reed let out a breath, "Alright."

She hesitated, "Sorry, Bevin."

Bevin nodded, "Yes, ma'am. We all want the captain back."

Reed returned to her chair. The crew knew what they were doing, and they all wanted the skipper back. There was little else she could do right now. All they could do was wait as their efforts to save the ship went through.

**XXXXX**

"So, you think she's descended from Todger Jones, or Alvin York?" Matthias grunted, smiling a little.

"I'm wondering if we're descendants of those idiots who defended Fort Douaumont," Hayes hissed, shifting his hold on the security officer with the broken ribs, "Damn Starfleet! I am going to put in a request, no, a _demand_ for Marines when this is all over."

"Am I going to have to find room for some hovertanks too? You never know when we might need them."

"You never do!"

"Both of you shut up!" Catra snapped, glancing back at them with her phaser at the ready, "You're hostages! Start acting like it!"

She turned around fully, her eyes quickly scanning the group clustered behind her.

The security team was helping each other along, grouped close to the captain and the XO, while Emerson was helping Adora carry Glimmer. Perfuma had recovered from the stun, and was a little wobbly, but walking beside Bow.

Glimmer was still unconscious. She still had a pulse, one that was quite rapid. Adora had said something about her "needing to recharge".

Entrapta was behind them, fiddling with a heavily modified PADD, and Scorpia brought up the rear, scanning the hostages and the dimly lit corridor behind them.

"Relax, force captain, we're just trying to settle our nerves." Matthias said, "But we'll stop if you want us."

"Not my first rodeo," Hayes added, "I know what the score is. But frankly, the last people who caught me were a little scarier."

"What were they? Ants?" Catra snorted.

"No, they were ticks!" Hayes said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Captain…" Matthias cautioned.

The officer rolled his eyes, but stopped talking.

"Least it wasn't a mouse…" Adora muttered further down the line.

Catra turned forward, almost as if she didn't hear her, but Adora could see the way her ears twitched.

"This doesn't make any sense," Entrapta muttered, scratching her head with a hand while a hair tentacle twisted a screwdriver on a screw drilled into the PADD, "I only meant to disable the counter intrusion systems. Why is it going nuts like this?"

"Did you break something? Sometimes I'll just touch something and it breaks, even when I'm not trying to!" Scorpia suggested.

"Your strength is quite astounding, but that wasn't what I did. I'm positive! Nothing is broken but the ship is malfunctioning!"

"...did you try hacking it again?"

"Well of course! How else was I going to overload their weapons and counter intrusion systems?"

Scorpia raised an eyebrow at her, "you think that might be why?"

"No, it's...it's more like the ship is fighting me!"

They reached a large door, like those of the cargo bay, which opened to reveal a small compartment, with a similar door on the other side. A computer terminal was built into the left wall, above some equipment racks, between two floor to ceiling racks. Another two mirrored them on the other side. There were three alcoves per rack, with a transparent latched door. Each held a large white helmet with a clear visor. What looked like torso armor plating was mounted to the helmets, above a neatly folded thick outfit. A pair of gloves were mounted to the side of each unit.

Under each outfit were a pair of boots, large ones with more of the odd armor plating above the ankle.

The airlock door shut when everyone was inside, and the Etherians looked around, studying the dimly lit environment.

"The airlock is being funny, give me a second." Entrapta said, messing around with the console.

The Starfleet personnel eyed the equipment lockers, but were wary of the discharge of phasers in that close space. Especially with people who didn't know how to use them.

"Hey, what are those things?" Adora asked Emerson, pointing to the helmet and outfits.

"Spacesuits, meant for ExtraVehicular Activity. EVA."

"You mean...go outside? Into space?"

"Since Alexei Leonov."

"Since who? Whatever, that's amazing!"

"Hey!" One able bodied security guard suddenly yelled, jumping off where he'd been leaning against the wall.

Even as her attention was focused on the console, one of Entrapta's tendrils of hair had crept its way over behind him and was poking at the latch to one spacesuit alcove.

It opened quickly, and the limb drew out the gloves, and another the boots.

"You can't just-!" The guard snarled, and started forward, but Catra shoved her phaser in his face.

"Try me, goldie! Don't you dare go near her!"

Matthias stepped over, pulling the guard back, "easy, easy…"

"But sir-!"

"Lock it down, mister!" Hayes snapped, "don't get yourself killed!"

"Better listen to him, goldie," Catra sneered, "like a good little boy."

She was somewhat annoyed he didn't respond to that. The goldshirt relaxed, and crossed his arms.

"How much longer?" Catra barked, looking at Entrapta.

She was busy putting the sole of the spacesuit boots against her own foot. Her current battered pair of boots bore a remarkable resemblance to them.

She looked up at Catra's demand, and pushed a button.

The door behind her slid open, and she spun around with phaser ready.

The airlock led out onto a catwalk, hanging over a vast cavernous space. It was a wide and long hangar. There were yellow or blue guidelines on the floor, to facilitate the movement of the dozen or so dozen strange craft of various shapes and sizes occupying the hangar. All bore Starfleet insignia, and had crews scrambling over them.

Catra's mouth fell open at the sight, at the huge scale of the thing. How could it be so big? How could they build this? How could _anyone_ build this? What must it have taken, a decade? Five decades? Strip-mining entire mountain ranges? How could they have built so much?

There were four types of vehicles in view. Off to their left was a long slender and sleek white ship, with a rectangular fuselage and a pair of nacelles hugging either side. A jet-black canopy was across the front.

Beyond it were two more smaller craft of similar shape, but had much less space between the nacelle mounts and the canopy.

The vehicles were placed in small alcoves set into the wall the catwalk emerged from, contained within yellow outlines.

Beyond the shuttles was...utter blackness?

As the others emerged from the airlock, they gasped at the spectacle, and more than one of them recoiled obviously in reaction to the apparent reality that there was nothing separating them from space.

Entrapta walked out onto the catwalk herself, and looked up to note the others' expressions.

Catra looked at her, and for once Entrapta was able to recognize human expressions.

"Oh, they've got a force field over the hangar door to keep the atmosphere in. It's perfectly safe!"

Catra wouldn't admit to a certain amount of panic. About _that_ at least. The hangar was only about half full, it looked like the spacecraft could be stored vertically in the alcoves. Yet there weren't enough in sight to fill them out. This many ships in this _half _of the hangar, and it wasn't even _half_ _full_?

The catwalk extended to meet a wide pillar that blocked their view of the other side of the hangar. A small control center by the looks of it was contained in the upper level of the pillar, with windows and people visible operating controls.

The third type of spacecraft was in front of the pillar, facing the blackness of space. It was by far the biggest. The vessel was long, with a sloped bow. It was large enough to have a hatch on the side, ahead of the large rig for the nacelles. The mount was curved, and attached to a large device on the top. It looked like some sort of weapon module or something.

There were five large hexagonal alcoves to their right along the wall for medium-sized vehicles to be placed into. They were much thinner than the other vehicles, much more like typical aircraft. Their wings were folded, but even if they were fully extended, they were already shorter than most planes any of the Etherians had seen.

"Shuttles…they're shuttles, right?" Catra demanded, grabbing Hayes by the arm and pulling him out of the lock.

A small cart moved soundlessly below them, dragging a tiny shuttlecraft not much bigger than itself. It was an ugly yellow thing, with a transparent bubble cockpit on one end, and a pair of arms extending from under it.

"Ow! Yeah! This _is_ the hangar deck! We've got shuttles, that things a worker bee," he pointed at the yellow bubble vehicle, "and those are Peregrines."

He pointed at the medium-sized winged vehicles.

"What's the difference? Whatever, I don't care! Entrapta, come on!"

Catra seized Hayes' collar, and dragged him, still holding her phaser to his head, "Scorpia, watch them!"

The crew in the control center had seen them by this point, and several emerged from the sliding silver door. Most were dressed in the standard Starfleet uniforms, but a few of them were dressed in lightweight pressure suits minus helmets. Pilots for the Peregrines.

Hayes' face lit up briefly, but both he and Catra were surprised to find none of the crewmembers carried firearms.

Some carried wrenches or piping, but that was about it.

"Lieutenant Sel!" Hayes called out, "what's going on? What's happened to the ship?"

He spoke to a woman with pointed ears, wearing one of the light pressure suits. It had a shoulder patch, with a shield emblem, and an odd cartoon bear figure on it. The figure was leaping at an unseen target, holding a photon torpedo with "_checkmate_" written on it. Underneath was written "_VFA-211_".

The woman nodded to the captain, and in a very calm tone despite the danger to her commander, spoke, "Sir, the ship has been compromised by a virus. Many critical systems have been compromised and shut down. The warp core is offline. All small arms have been rendered useless, as have intruder defense systems, hence our inability to rescue you. We have also been warned that the virus may be Borg in origin."

"Damn it! Casualties?"

"Difficult to determine, captain. Lieutenant Commander Zh'Reed has ordered most systems shut down to deny them to the virus, and what little we have is barely functional. Weapons lockers and armories have exploded, there have been overloads in several critical systems...suffice it to say, we do have casualties."

"A virus? Impossible! I would have detected it!" Entrapta spoke up, peering at the Vulcan, "and I only intended your counter intruder systems to be disrupted!"

"Evidently, we have the source of some of the issues."

"Yeah, but what about the rest? Why would what she was doing affect the warp core? And Borg?" Hayes asked, "really? With all the black projects on the surface, how do we know it's not one of those?"

"A logical conclusion as any, captain, but we cannot be certain of anything until the crisis has abated." the vulcan looked at the smaller caitian beside the captain, "Force Captain Catra, as we cannot stop you at this present time, what are your demands?"

Catra furrowed her brow, but quickly changed to a glare, "For you to stop talking. I've got this blaster set to 16, and pointed at your commander's head. If you don't give me your biggest ship-"

"A _Danube_-class runabout!" Entrapta cried out, pointing to the large ship aimed at the hangar door.

"Yeah, one of those, and a pilot, I'm going to incinerate him one millimeter at a time!"

"Understood, force captain. We can see quite clearly your threat."

Catra's nostrils flared, "_Shut up! Don't say anything like that again_! _Get me a damned pilot_-!"

A human in a red turtleneck shoved her way through the small crowd, and shouted over Catra, "Force captain, we _can't_ give you a ship! And we're not giving you more hostages!"

"_And why can't you give me a ship?!_"

"All our auxiliary craft are suffering computer problems! The damn things can't be trusted to safely operate five meters from the bay's force field, let alone reentry!"

"And who the hell are you?"

"I'm the air boss," the woman shouted, beating her chest, "I'm in charge of this fucking flight deck, and I know what's what! None of these ships are gonna fly, kid! It ain't happening!"

"Entrapta?"

Entrapta looked at her PADD, "According to your records, Charger 1, that runabout, was in maintenance. Its computer has been offline for days. Whatever virus is affecting the other machinery should not affect it."

Several of the control center crew and the pilots muttered curses, and the air boss (more formally referred to as the air officer) cursed, throwing her hands up, "Sorry, captain. I tried!"

"It's alright, lieutenant." Hayes said, nodding to her.

He tugged his collar out of Catra's grip, "She's not going to give you a pilot."

"So...you want to be pushed off of here, you want a lower charge death, or should I just start burning from the bottom?"

Hayes rolled his eyes, "You're not getting any more hostages. Matthias and I, we're fully qualified pilots. We'll fly her. It's not like it can fit many more people. What's it configured for, lieutenant?"

"It's empty, sir." the air boss glared at Catra, "_She's in for repairs, you stupid kids! What the hell do you think it'll have?_!"

The deck crew all dove for cover when Catra sent a phaser blast over their heads.

She glared up at Hayes. He glared right back.

"Go ahead. Shoot me. It won't do you any favors."

The corner of Catra's mouth went up a little, "you're really not scared, aren't you?"

"I've faced death before, force captain. I think I've seen some of the things you have. And I think you'd do the same thing if you were in my position."

Catra nodded, "you're right. In that last thing."

She twirled the phaser in her hand, and glanced at Scorpia, "Alright, Scorpia! Pack them up! We're going home!"

"Okay!" Scorpia glanced around, "uh, excuse me air boss, where's the elevator?"

The air officer, with a general glare, pointed to an elevator near the catwalk running around the control center.

"Thank you!"

"_Please_ don't mention it."

The hostages were transferred down to the runabout, and Entrapta immediately went to the main hatch.

Catra glanced around the hangar deck, an odd expression on her face, "Hey, is there a way we can drag more ships with us? Like those teletanks you built for the Bright Moon attack?"

Entrapta shook her head, "They don't seem to like that."

"I don't care-!"

"No," Entrapta said, shaking her head and opening the door, "I mean the _ships_ don't like it. There's something in their design that makes it difficult. If I had enough time, I could persuade them, but even with what I can do, this stuff is still so new to me. Just because you can run a computer doesn't mean you understand integrated circuits! Also, they've been taking apart the computers for the other ships, while this one is still in one piece. It just needs to wake up."

The interior of the runabout was cramped, and yet still had that odd spacious Starfleet feel to it. Dark displays were on almost every surface. There were four stations to the left for the cockpit, with two seats facing the porthole canopy, and two seats facing to the sides. To the right was an area with a hatch in the rear leading to the rear section.

Taking up the space between the main hatch and the rear access door though, was what could only be described as an archway.

It was about a meter deep, and two meters wide, with two white circles dominating most of the space on the floor and ceiling panels. More computer interfaces were attached to the boundaries of the arch, including a replicator. There were also charging mounts for several hand phasers.

"What's this?" Catra asked, pulling the phasers out of the arch and shoving them in a pocket. She looked around for more hidden weaponry, opening drawers, breaking open survival kits, and spilling equipment all over the place.

Entrapta glanced at it, "Transporter."

"What? Nevermind. Why this ship over the others? I mean it's the biggest, but…"

"The other ships are short ranged. They can be independent, but not by much. The _Danube_-class runabout has much greater range, weapons capability, mission flexibility, and living space than most shuttles. It's designed to be less expensive than a full starship, but be far more capable than the shuttles. This ship contains examples of most significant Starfleet technologies, even some of the ones I don't know about!"

Catra made her odd expression again. Then it vanished, and she grinned greedily, "Perfect. We'll be up in space beating these guys in a few months thanks to this thing. Has it got a name?"

"We call her _Day_, or Charger 1." Captain Hayes said, stepping into the cabin with his hands up.

"Who said you could come in?!" Catra demanded, pointing her phaser.

"You want to get out of here, or don't you? I'd rather not just wait around here waiting for the ship to burst into flame." He walked over to Entrapta, who had an irritated expression on her face as she prodded a control panel a little hard.

"You want help with that?"

"Huh? Oh, sure!"

Entrapta moved out of the way and took one of the seats behind the pilot seats, while Hayes sat down in the pilot's noticed her inspecting the spacesuit gloves she'd borrowed, comparing them to her own, and her eyes just lit up.

"Incredible workmanship! Able to stand up to intense heat _and_ cold!"

She stuck a hand in one, "how are they so flexible?!"

She found a few controls on the palm side of the gloves, and touched one. Her face somehow grew even happier.

"They've even got temperature control units in the fingers! Amazing! What else do these controls do?"

Hayes gave her the side eye as she quickly replaced her gloves with the Starfleet ones.

"Most of the functionality is gone without the rest of the suit. And those batteries won't recharge without the main unit."

"And they don't seem to fit well." Catra pointed out. The gloves were huge on Entrapta, hanging in a baggy manner.

"Oh, I'll fix that easily. Ooh, do you have anything like that in the boots?"

Entrapta pulled off her right shoe and put the spacesuit boot up to her foot once again. "Hm...still seems a bit big…"

She didn't care, and yanked first one on, then doffed her right boot and pulled on the other.

Her hair and shoulders slumped a bit, "aw…still too big! Still, very nice! I can probably tailor these…"

Catra furrowed her brow, "I'm not one for shoes but don't they usually have straps?"

She crouched and peered at the boots, reaching for the connection between the shin plating and the ankle.

Her hand strayed over a hidden control, and abruptly the boots contracted and tightened.

"What the-?" Catra yelled, recoiling. Within an instant, the boots stopped moving, fitted to the contours of Entrapta's feet.

Entrapta was utterly fascinated, lifting up one foot and poking at the boot with hands and hair.

"Self-adjusting boots," Hayes said, turning away from his console, "helps when you need to get into spacesuits in a hurry."

"I wish I'd thought of these," Entrapta said, turning the system on and off and watching the shoes expand and tighten, "Tying shoes is just a waste of time!"

She got an idea, and poked the controls at random on the gloves. They immediately tightened on her hands, and she made a small squealing sound.

Hayes smiled a little, despite the situation, and glanced at Catra.

His smile vanished as he saw the odd expression on her face once again.

She shook her head, and aimed her phaser at Hayes, "Get back to work!"

"Can I have my copilot?"

Catra went to the hatch, "Scorpia! Throw everyone in the cargo bay!"

As the prisoners filed in and went toward the back, Hayes jumped to his feet, "we've got at least two beds for the wounded back there! And medical kits! Don't put my people in that cargo bay without treatment!"

Emerson raised a hand, "I have medical training. I can take care of them."

Catra rolled her eyes, "fine. I'll have Scorpia keep an eye on them. Now get to work!"

She gestured to the console and shoved Matthias by the shoulder. He was a little shocked at how much she made him budge, but didn't show it.

"Can I get a medical kit too?" He asked slowly and deliberately, pointing at a box with a red plus sign on the floor, amidst the piles of survival gear, "I assume you don't want my blood all over your new runabout control console."

Catra found one of the aft seats and sat down heavily. "Ugh... whatever. Just can we _please_ get going?!"

Matthias picked up the box, took a moment to collect the spilled supplies, then went to the copilot's seat.

"Do you have a plan? Need I remind you we can't let this thing fall into their hands?" He hissed to Hayes, holding a dermal regenerator to his face.

"Buy time." He replied, "Catra's pretty twitchy, we need to be subtle. So no 'accidentally' ejecting the warp core. I'll go slow though. If necessary I'll 'accidentally' crash her. We just need to wait long enough for someone to rescue us."

"She's been acting unusual ever since we got in the hangar. Think we can use that?"

"She's got the phaser, she's from a Leibowitz world, and she's pretty smart. Be careful with the Kelvan Maneuver."

"Hello? Morons?" Catra demanded, getting to her feet and knocking Matthias on the head with the butt of a pilfered phaser, "let's go!"

Hayes sighed, and pressed a control.

Lights powered on and lit up the whole cockpit.

He spoke, "Computer, initiate system check."

"_Affirmative._"

He entered commands into the console as the runabout booted up.

"Power up. Thrusters online," he sounded out, "warp core is go. Navigation is go. Life support is go."

"Docking clamps disengaged," Matthias reported, "shields are online. communications are go. Sensors are go. Weapons are online. Looks like we're go for launch."

The captain pushed a control, "PriFly, this is Charger 1. Request permission for take off."

The air boss on the other end responded with a very calm and rational voice, unlike her outrage earlier, "ah, that'll be a few minutes, Charger 1. The deck's a mess. We'll need time to-"

"That's time you don't have!" Catra barked, leaning in and hitting the control, "Clear a path for us, or we're blasting our way out!"

"Charger 1 actual. Please repeat?" The controller asked calmly.

"Do it, PriFly. Tell Lieutenant Commander Reed, Authorization John Deere." Hayes said reluctantly.

There was a pause.

"... Understood Charger 1. Be aware, it really will take a little bit of time. Certain systems are offline."

"They literally can't go much faster," Matthias said, looking at Catra, "this isn't a delaying tactic. There are physical mechanical reasons, the flight deck is meant to service up to forty craft at once."

"Alright then." Catra said, taking a seat and still holding the phaser on them.

After a moment of waiting, she looked at Hayes, "Hey captain."

Hayes glanced back, trying to keep his eye on the phaser and the status board at the same time, "yes?"

"How did crazy sword lady number one get those scars on her neck? The high-tech crossword puzzle?"

"Her name was Mara." He growled.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Let me rephrase that. How did crazy sword lady number one get that high-tech crossword puzzle on her neck, I have a gun, answer me, you moron."

"She was attacked. What she did to survive left those marks." Hayes replied coolly.

Catra furrowed her brow, "Okay, what kind of attack leaves that kind of mark? Looks like a freaking tattoo more than an injury, but I saw those two holes!"

Matthias gave Hayes a look, "steady, captain."

"What about the rest of her injuries, then?" Catra asked, smirking a little, "man, she was a _mess_! I saw her eyes, those weren't her normal ones! And her hand..."

Emerson spoke up from the back of the cockpit, emerging from the rear hatch with Scorpia at his back, "Force Captain, with all due respect as your hostage, we'd prefer it if you didn't bait the captain. We want to make it all out of here alive, and I don't want to be the one to explain to _anyone_ how one of you got brutally dismembered. Or disintegrated. To either the man down there or Starfleet."

"Scorpia, what is he doing out?" Catra demanded, "What about the other prisoners?!"

"He was done helping those guys I broke, and everyone's locked up. I figured I'd let him stretch his legs a little. Y'know, reward for following the rules." Scorpia scratched the back of her head,, "also, I...may...have accidentally paralyzed one of the guards. With my tail."

"He's fine, captain," Emerson said, "he just can't move."

"Oh... I'm too tired for this." Catra settled back into her seat, phaser arm on one arm rest.

After about a minute though, she couldn't resist one more.

"Okay, how come all the She-ras are so dumb? None of them can dodge anything!"

Hayes' hands curled into fists.

"What'd she do? Stand in front of everything shot at her? Pretty stupid if you ask me."

"The colonel was one of the most intelligent people I knew," Hayes said venomously, "I was there for most of her injuries. She was not stupid."

"Stupid enough to trap everyone in subspace..."

Hayes glared back at her, "Mara made a mistake. But she was my friend. You can kidnap us, but one more crack out of you, and I'm not responsible for what's going to happen."

"What, were you sleeping with her? Is that it?"

Hayes coughed, "what?! No! Of course not! Mara was gay!"

For once, the force captain's eyes went wide in genuine surprise. "She was what?"

"She was gay. She was a lesbian."

"A _what_?"

"Sweet merciful _Buddha…_" Hayes groaned, "Oh look! They've moved the Peregrines out of the way!"

"Well, let's get outta here." Catra ordered.

Hayes exchanged a look with Matthias, "PriFly, this is Charger 1. We'll be back."

"Affirmative, Charger 1. You are cleared for departure."

The runabout lifted a meter off the deck, and slid out of it's spot. Slowly they angled toward the docking bay door, and toward open space.

Catra played with some of the settings on the phaser, glanced out the window...and her jaw went slack.

They were so much closer to space now, but that wasn't even the best/worst part.

She finally got a full look at the _Belleau Wood_, and all the ships in the flotilla.

Catra had known the ship was huge, the hangar had been evidence enough of that...but it hadn't quite done it justice.

They passed off the saucer section and between the two catamaran like warp nacelles, and above the large weapon pod connecting the two.

"She's an _Akira_-class aviation cruiser, carries heavy weapons, fighters, and flies like a dream," Hayes explained, a grim smirk appearing on his face, "she's about 480 meters long, and we've got dozens like her."

Other ships in white and silver colors drifted in formation around the cruiser. Two were similar in shape, but smaller. They were just a saucer section with nacelles mounted on the underside of the hull, and a superstructure frame with a weapon pod in the center above the saucer.

One ship was smaller than the rest, with a trapezoid-shaped nose, a rectangular aft section, and a pair of nacelles rising up on its flanks.

Coming into view as they moved off the _Belleau Wood_, three more spacecraft were visible below them. A pair of T-shaped starships, with long nacelles hanging off either side, escorted a slightly larger ship.

This one was rectangular with one end curved and a small nose jutting outward. A pair of engine pods, not nacelles, were mounted to the sides and hugged close.

Catra couldn't believe her eyes. These ships were _huge_! They were bigger than most seagoing warships the _Rebellion_ could field, even when they had the resources to do so, let alone what the Horde could deploy.

The power they held, the weaponry...it must have been immense.

_So big...How?! How can they be so freaking _big_?!_

"Impressed, force captains?" Hayes asked.

"Why are they all so white?" Scorpia inquired, looking out a few windows.

"It's because…" Matthias winced, and stopped talking when Hayes glared at him.

Catra looked at the phaser in her hand. It was like comparing a sharp rock to a breech-loading cannon.

"Well, with you people and this ship, we'll be able to match your capabilities pretty quickly," She said, an odd tone to her voice, "shouldn't take long."

Emerson got to his feet, and walked forward a bit.

Scorpia held her phaser on him, but he put up his hands, "I'm just stretching my legs!"

She pointed it at the ceiling, "Don't try anything."

"What can I do? All I can do is talk, that's my job."

"Seems like that's all you people do," Catra grunted, "all this firepower, all these ships, toys I can't even _begin _to guess at, and all you do is stand around and talk."

"Well, Starfleet isn't exactly a military organization." Emerson said, leaning against the bulkhead. He paused, then corrected himself, "...okay, actually we are, by every definition, that was a bad way to say it. I mean we're more than that. We _are_ a military organization, but our job isn't just to fight, it's to prevent fighting."

"Sure you do. And those weapons are all just for self defense, aren't they?"

"United Nations Peacekeepers during the late 20th and early 21st centuries could be heavily armed when they needed to deter the locals. We're not naive, we know some factions don't respect flags of peace. And we know when we _need _to fight. You saw how scared of the Dominion everyone was during the war. That wasn't just a small group. _Everyone_ was afraid."

Catra slowly turned toward him, "wait a minute..._you_ people. _All _of you. Not just some dumb blonde. But the _Federation_. You were _afraid_?"

Emerson nodded gravely, "They were the second biggest threat the Federation has ever seen. Millions died and thousands of starships from Starfleet alone were lost."

"But...but…" Catra blinked slowly, frustration and confusion evident in her face. She gestured at the windows, "_Those_ ships. _Those ships_. Did you say _thousands_? Destroyed? How could you even have that many?! How could you build so many?!"

The Horde could field maybe a few hundred thousand soldiers. They could theoretically operate a thousand ships...if they went to absolutely minimal crew for each one and didn't anticipate casualties, or ground warfare. And these people supposedly had 150 worlds, not counting colonies, which probably meant hundreds or thousands of worlds. Considering these ships...maybe they weren't lying.

Hayes looked at her, "Starfleet has several thousand starships of varying shapes and sizes. Most of the senior officers you've met including myself and Matthias served during the war. Most of the crew enlisted during it, if they didn't fight in it."

"I myself was a Starfleet Ground Forces combat medic," Emerson said, "Not quite as intense as the Marines or the Federation Army, but I saw my share of combat."

Catra chuckled, an odd tone to it, "You guys and your starships. All this pretty tech, the arrogance of that Picard guy, all this stuff...why do you want us? We're a bunch of primates! That's what you think of us!"

The officers looked surprised, and looked at each other.

"I heard your guards talking. You're not as friendly as you say you are, are you? What do you want us for?"

"Etheria is one of our colonies. We're here to help you. We're _obligated_ to."

An alarm blared from the control board. "_Warning; warp core is offline._"

"Captain, we've got a problem!" Matthias said with alarm.

Hayes turned back to his console, "the warp core's malfunctioning?! How'd that happen?!"

"Equipment malfunction, sir! It's overheating!"

"Was that the same thing that happened to the _Belleau Wood_?"

"Possibly, I'm trying to shut it down now!"

Hayes tapped a few controls, "killing impulse drive and venting plasma. See if that does anything."

"What's happening?" Catra demanded.

"The ship's been infected by whatever virus attacked the _Wood_, we have to shut down the warp core."

"What does that mean?!" she demanded, putting the phaser against the back of Hayes' head.

Hayes shoved it off, "It means propulsion is offline and we didn't do it deliberately so don't shoot us!"

"Well, fix it! Entrapta, can you help them?"

Entrapta was looking between her PADD and the console beside her, her brow furrowed. "What is going on? Why does this keep happening?"

"What keeps happening?" Matthias asked politely.

Entrapta looked at him, "Your computer systems could use some improvements. I keep trying to install some, but your systems keep fighting me! The reactors keep attacking my updates!"

"You keep trying to _what_?!" Hayes demanded, cringing back a little as his raised voice brought two phasers in his direction.

"I keep trying to update your systems," Entrapta repeated slowly, "but your computers keep fighting whenever I do. Do you need me to explain things like Catra needs them?"

Hayes groaned, and Matthias sighed, "Princess Entrapta, are you aware of antivirus software?"

"Of course!" She brightened up, turning more toward the Gorn, "your systems keep throwing up firewalls and activating defenses when I try to update them. They're very basic updates, meant for finer calibration of weapon systems, reactor temperature control...all sorts of things. They have no malicious intent, why are your computers fighting me? Well I did mean to disable your small arms and anti intruder things, but..."

Matthias nodded, "Princess, did you make sure to fill out all the credentials before you installed these updates? Our computers are designed to prevent enemy access to them. We had a bad experience during the Romulan War. Any sort of program that tries to alter their systems and do not have permission or a Federation signature, is considered an enemy program, or at least something to be contained. We are very careful to avoid anything that could risk compromising the ship. I know you didn't mean any harm, but the computer doesn't. All it saw was unauthorized changes to the variables."

"I…" Entrapta had a quizzical look on her face, but nodded in understanding, "oh...Whoops. I'm sorry."

"That's it?" Hayes asked, "_Belleau Wood_ is nearly dead in space because she didn't fill out the paperwork? That's _it_?!"

"Looks like it, sir."

"But...they're from a Leibowitz world. She was using a _tape recorder_ for crying out loud! How is that possible?! How can she hack isolinear circuitry?!"

"Shut up!" Catra barked, "Shut up and fix the freaking engines! Get us back home _now_!"

"Princess Entrapta, if you would be so kind as to take your updates out?" Matthias asked.

"_Shut up! Shut up! _Just stop talking, all of you!" Catra nearly shrieked, beating her fist against the hull.

"Catra…!" Scorpia said with concern.

"Not now!" Catra groaned, "Just everyone stop talking!"

"No one's talking." Emerson said, "It's alright, just take deep breaths."

"Stop being so damned _polite_!" She barked, "You're hostages! I stole your ship! I kidnapped all of you! What is the matter with you?!"

"You," she said, pointing at Matthias, "you're a Gorn! How are you so calm all the time? The captain's been crazier than you! What's the matter with you? What's the matter with _all_ of you?!"

Matthias crossed his arms, "I believe you are referring to a racist stereotype."

"Oh, did I hurt your feelings? Sor-ee, softie! As if you'd know racism!"

He narrowed his gaze, looking hostile really for the first time. "I'm from Broken Bow. Oklahoma. On _Earth_. Gorn aren't exactly a common sight on Earth. Broken Bow is a big place for aliens, but there's still some prejudice. There were maybe a few hundred of us for the thousands of humans, Klingons, Vulcans, Andorians, and other races. Some humans didn't like us, and neither did all of the aliens. I had to defend my siblings from bullies. I got beaten up myself. I got threats against my life. And compared to the Klingon kids…?"

"Shut up! You wouldn't understand! You think you can, but you don't! None of you know anything!"

"Understand what, force captain?" Emerson asked quietly.

Catra fixed her gaze on him, "You wouldn't understand!"

"Understand _what_?"

"Everything! Nothing! Leave me alone!"

"If we don't understand, _make us_ understand. We might be able to figure something out. You might be able to get us on your side. What's the matter?" Emerson's voice was firm, but soothing. He took a step toward Catra.

"What do you care?" Catra demanded, turning her phaser on him, "what does anyone care?"

"I care. That's my job. Caring about other people's problems, even if they don't think anyone does."

"Why?! What kind of job is that?! Who does that?!"

"We do." Emerson was calm, his face impassive. Emotions ran up and down Catra's face, and she backed up against the wall.

"Why? Why would you help people like us?"

"Our whole government is based on the principles of universal rights, liberty, and equality. We _want_ to help people. We help those who can't help themselves. And sometimes it's just the right thing to do."

"The right thing to do. How do you know what that is?" Catra asked.

"It's hard to tell sometimes," Emerson said, settling against the transporter arch, "and sometimes you make mistakes."

He noticed the phaser was shaking.

"You don't understand. You just don't understand!" She said.

"What don't I understand?"

"I...I…" Catra pulled the phaser in close, pointing it at the ceiling.

Her face drew into a scowl, "Nothing! You don't understand anything! Just get us back down to the surface!"

"Why?"

"Whaddya mean _why_?!"

"What do you intend with this craft? With all of us?"

"Turn it over to the Horde, duh!"

"Why?"

"So they can reverse engineer it! We'll be up here blasting you in no time!"

"Okay," Emerson said, nodding, "playing devil's advocate here, with no sarcasm, you've done a great job. You've crippled our biggest ship, you've gotten away with senior officers who know a lot about the Federation, and you've got a ship to reverse engineer almost all our technology from. This is the perfect situation for you. You'll get a lot of credit, maybe Lord Hordak will find a way to raise you even higher in the ranks...Fantastic work. Now, once you've done this, do you have any plans?"

"Emerson…" Hayes groaned. Evidently the counselor did this sort of thing often. But he noticed the look on Catra's face.

She was utterly _flabbergasted_. Her face was limp, mouth open, her multicolored eyes wide, and her tail slacked.

Then, she returned to normal. Her face became a scowl, her eyes burning with rage, "I had plans. Sure it worked. _But it's not good enough is it?_" She hissed, "If we don't get moving soon, your ships will pick us up, right? Everything I did is pointless!"

She punched the wall again, "Not good enough, damn it, not good enough! _Nothing..._is ever...good enough!"

She punctuated each phrase with a punch. Catra stamped the deck plating, "_Nothing!_ Damn it, nothing ever works! Nothing I do works!"

Matthias and Hayes looked at each other, taking in this distressingly familiar display.

"Catra, that's not true!" Scorpia said, moving closer and raising a claw.

"Yes it is!" Catra roared, her voice cracking, "I can't do anything right! Nothing I do ever works right! Okay fine, I can make things any idiot can do work, but that's it! Any time I try to do something right I fail!"

She kicked the wall, "Damn it, damn it, _damn it_!"

Emerson spoke "Catra, that's not true of anybody. I don't know you and I can tell that's not true. I've seen a lot of people screw up."

"Right." Catra muttered, playing with the phaser controls.

"That's beside the point, though. So you get all this credit, what are you doing it for? Why do you want to help Hordak?"

"He's the boss."

"But why?"

"Because he's the boss!"

"Do you believe in your cause? What is your cause? It can't be just following orders. That's an unacceptable excuse."

"We're just making things better…" she mumbled, "We were trying to do that…"

"An admirable goal. That's what everyone wants. No shame in that. But why are you following the Horde?"

"It's where I'm from? Loyalty, hello?" she looked aft toward the hatch, "_Something _some _people don't understand_!"

"I don't think she can hear you." Scorpia said.

"Oh, she'll find a way…" Catra muttered, "Get to the point, counselor man."

"Do you believe in the cause, or are you following Hordak because it's the only thing you know? He attacked the _Enterprise_ to get that technology you're about to provide him. It's his fault this world suffered so much-"

"So you say," Catra snarled, anger rising again, "So you all say! But how can we tell the truth! There's no way!"

"Incorrect." Entrapta spoke up.

Catra whipped her head around to look at the technician, her neck making a _crack_.

"_What_?" she muttered, her tone venomous, with a strange undercurrent.

"Holodeck sensor records were authentic," Entrapta explained, gesturing to her PADD, "Did I forget to tell you? The ones they took were genuine."

"How...how do you know?"

"You told me not to explain the tech details-"

The cockpit rang with the force of Catra's roar, and she threw several survival kits to the floor.

The Starfleet personnel jumped back, hugging the hull.

"No, no, no! That's impossible! He can't...he can't have!"

The force captain spewed more animalistic roars amidst coherent curses, smashing anything she could get her hands on. The steel maintenance hatch on the floor did not flex under her stomps, but it certainly made disturbing noises.

She pounded on the wall, blood staining it as the skin was already bruised from the force field.

Matthias and Hayes looked at each other, then scrambled around looking for the medical kits. No phasers, but Starfleet anticipated this sort of thing. The sedatives were scattered all over the place though…

Catra's vision was red, everything was filled with pain. She wasn't even making coherent sounds anymore. Tears were spilling freely, but she didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore, nothing…

Someone seized her by the shoulders, gently but firmly grabbing her arms and pulling her fists back.

"Hey...hey…"

Scorpia pulled Catra close to her, holding her tightly and not letting her move her arms, despite her efforts.

"Take it easy…"

Catra tilted her head up a little, only making eye contact with Scorpia's chin before she couldn't go any further. She bowed her head, stopped fighting, and leaned against Scorpia.

Scorpia's head tilted back a little in surprise, and her eyes widened.

_That's a first…_

She hugged the smaller girl tighter.

There was a soft thump. A phaser had appeared on the deck. Emerson quickly snatched it up, setting it to wide beam.

He was pleasantly surprised by Scorpia wordlessly holding two more out, butt first.

Entrapta looked between the two parties, then shrugged, and pulled a phaser from out of nowhere, handing it to Hayes.

He took it, and nodded to her in thanks.

Matthias tapped Hayes on the shoulder, and gestured to the blinking light on his console.

Hayes tapped the control, and a female voice crackled through.

"_This is the USS _Havoc _actual to Charger 1. Captain Hayes, do you need a tow yet?_"

Hayes tapped the console again, "Thanks for the offer, _Havoc_. Everything is under control now. Hostage situation has concluded, repeat, we are no longer hostages. Authorization Hayes Bravo Delta 3-1. We don't need John Deere anymore. We could use some help getting back to the ship, though."

"_Understood. we'll beam you all here and drag your ship back with us. Anyway, your entire flight group needs to be checked out. Some sort of virus, apparently._"

"We heard about that, _Havoc_. In fact we found the cause. We need to get back to the ship ASAP."

"_Copy that. Stand by._"

Hayes glanced behind him, then said in a lower voice, "Charger 1 to _Havoc_...belay that transporter order. We're not hostages, but we do have a small situation with the hostage taker here. Do not, repeat, _do not_ transport us."

"_Copy that, Charger 1._"

"_Havoc _actual, I also need you to come aboard the _Belleau_ _Wood_ once we fix her. I've got some things to talk to you about. In private."

"_Understood, Charger 1 actual. See you in a few._"


	6. Chapter 6

The stars twinkled high above the battlefield, indifferent to the suffering below. A wide valley with rolling hills throughout, and a small river along the deepest portion. Guns pounded and flashed on both sides of the horizon. Soldiers in shiny plate armor stained with mud and dirt huddled in bunkers and fortifications. On the opposite side of the valley were more grunts in their own trenches, wearing cloth uniforms with only armored vests and helmets, but sheltered in similar lodgings.

Though night had fallen, the soldiers of the Rebellion and the Horde still fought small skirmishes along the line. Tanks moved to and fro, performing counter-battery fire against the cannons of the Rebellion. Arrows and bullets rained down on Horde troops hunkered down in trenches, while mortars and energy weapons replied. Most of those unengaged tried to rest, or entertain themselves to drown out the endless shelling.

It felt so unique in their minds, such an immediate threat, the worst conflict they could imagine.

The Rebellion soldiers were holding out, but only just barely. The Horde just couldn't crack them.

It was hell. What possible environment could be worse than this?

As the history of war teaches however, there's always new weapons, new clever ways to kill, new terrors.

But trench warfare certainly had its own flavor.

The flavor of blood, muck, and brass, the smell of flesh, and gunpowder, and the sound of those never ending pounding guns.

A gunnery crew of the Horde stepped away from their field gun, resighted and aimed at a grid point on the map. The night was chilly, but the heat of the gun and its spent shells gave off was enough that they had all taken off their helmets and vests.

"On the way!" a man yelled, clutching a cord attached to the gun's breech. He yanked it hard, and the gun leapt back, sending a round high into the air.

After a second or so, its report was indistinct from the others fired by the rest of the battery.

"Load!" an officer shouted, and the crew opened the breech. A spent smoking shell was thrown back amidst a cloud of hot gases, and a woman carried another shell to ram into place.

"Up!" She yelled.

An observer called out firing corrections, and they readjusted the gun. They stepped back, "Fire!"

"On the way!"

The loader grabbed another shell, then turned and halted. The rest of the crew had frozen, looking up at the sky.

"What-?" she asked, then spotted a streak of red light across the sky. It was hard to spot among the clouds, a shining white outline with a red glow, and a trail of black smoke behind it. It must've been some kind of flying machine.

The loader realized it was getting closer. Then she noted something else. A small glowing slug, arcing downward-

It was their last shell. Whatever it was, the object was going to intersect with it.

The flying machine shuddered and waggled, as more flames shot out.

The vehicle descended further, and roared overhead, toward the front line, letting out a deafening series of booms and a howl like a banshee.

One of the artillery observers watched it go by, as it flew over the Rebel lines.

_Must've been some new weapon,_ he thought, _there'll probably be some more casualty reports in the morning…_

He suddenly spotted a strange blue shimmer on the field, along the same track as the flying machine. It was about half the distance between him and where the machine had disappeared.

He raised his binoculars, but couldn't make out much. A few silhouettes, not much else.

Apparently, someone else spotted it. Star shells, designed for illumination, went off on both sides of the battlefield, lighting up fortifications, tanks, enemy soldiers…

...And four strange individuals standing in the middle of the battlefield.

One wore a red turtleneck under her grey-shouldered uniform, two wore gold, and the fourth was wearing a teal turtleneck. All carried sidearms and backpacks. All looked extremely confused.

"Vadelar, where the hell did you put us down?!" the woman in red demanded, her furry tail swishing angrily back and forth. Her fangs were bared in anger and fear, and her eyes dodged around rapidly, while her tall cat-like ears twitched. She clutched her phaser tightly in both hands, ready to level it at anything. She wore no shoes, instead her bare fur and padded paws protected against the mud they stood ankle-deep in.

The young man she yelled at in the jungle green turtleneck was a humanoid with blue skin, and a distinct bifruticating ridge along the center of his face. He looked around in shock and bewilderment.

"I...I...ma'am, the ship was _on fire_! I didn't have a very wide selection!"

A shell landed nearby, and the Caitian officer hissed, "Everyone get to cover, regroup at that crater over there! Turn out your flashlights, I don't care how dark it is!"

Gunfire rang out, the ground rumbling under their feet as more shells came down. Light guns on both sides fired, sending rounds high into the air, that unleashed harsh orange light as they slowly descended. Screams and cries reached their ears as the battlefield was illuminated by the star shell ammunition.

A brace of fire scattered the group. The woman in red grabbed the human in gold following her and threw him into the ground beside her.

The gunfire swept overhead, and moved somewhere else.

"C'mon, Hawkins," the officer barked, pulling her subordinate to his feet, "Keep your head down and keep moving!"

Hawkins peered around in the gloom as they ran, the muzzle flashes and star shells ruining his night vision, "Lieutenant, I can't see Vadelar or Zolka-"

His voice abruptly stopped, but he kept running.

The junior grade lieutenant looked to her side to order him to move faster, and for a moment saw a horrific image.

An arrow was embedded in his carotid artery, blood spurting as his eyes rolled. He was still running at full speed as though he were alive, and for a moment longer, he was.

Then his body went limp, and flew headlong into a nearby crater.

The lieutenant dove in after him, "Hawkins!"

Facedown in the mud, not even making any bubbles, he was obviously dead. She paused to strip him of his gear, throwing his combadge, phaser, and tricorder in his pack.

A figure appeared at the top of the shell crater, pointing a bow wildly. He couldn't see her, but the lieutenant could see him.

She raised her phaser, sending the foe down in a flash of light.

Clambering to the top of the crater rim, she looked around, and spotted the rendezvous point.

More figures were appearing in the distance, and she ran hunched over to avoid a volley of musket balls, bullets, and arrows.

Finally, she was able to dive into the crater. It was deeper than most, making it easier to hide in.

Ensign Vadelar, the bolian, was huddled in it. He pulled his phaser and held it shakily on the lieutenant.

"Stand to, Ensign!" she snapped, and he relaxed, "Hawkins is KIA, where's Zolka?!"

Vadelar shrugged, "Lost track of her!"

The lieutenant cursed, "I got Hawkins' gear, so we got some ammo."

She tapped her combadge, "Mayday, mayday, mayday! _Belleau Wood_, this is Charger 3. We've done an emergency beam out roughly twenty klicks from our runabout's crash site. We've taken casualties! One missing, one dead, two survivors confirmed! We're pinned down in the middle of a battlefield! Request immediate extraction! _Belleau Wood,_ do you read?!"

When there was no response, she repeated the transmission. With still no response she tapped the badge again and barked, "Mayday, mayday, mayday! Any federation forces receiving me, this is Lieutenant Mikins P'noa of Charger 3 transmitting in the blind! Need immediate evac! Mayday, mayday, mayday!"

The officer growled, there was no response at all.

She glanced at the ensign beside her, "You set a subspace beacon, I'll burn them down."

Mikins stepped up to the rim of the crater, and set her phaser to wide beam. Then she turned up the power to 6. The strongest setting below "kill".

A squad of enemy soldiers, the ones in armored vests, were coming.

Her grip tightened on the phaser, Hawkins' shocked face running through her mind.

She recalled an old song, from years ago. "_For a moment he is mystified, 'there must be some mistake', as it all drains out in a crimson lake"..._

Mikins pushed the firing stud, and an invisible beam of particles slammed into the enemy. The entire enemy squadron just...collapsed. No injuries, nothing. It wouldn't be pleasant waking up, but they'd live.

The lieutenant wanted to do more to them, but couldn't. She _knew_ she couldn't.

Another squadron appeared, taking cover this time and firing back.

The lieutenant felt a bullet graze her ear, and roared in defiance, changing her phaser setting to wide beam. With another touch of the stud, another particle beam set a line of fires that flames burned the cover the enemy hid behind.

A stabbing pain hit her shoulder, throwing her fire off, and setting alight the ground in front of her.

"Lieutenant!" Vadelar called out, and she reached back, feeling a wooden shaft embedded in her shoulder.

She stumbled back toward the ensign, and retrieved the medical kit with her left hand.

"E_n_s_ign_…" she garbled, and gestured wildly to the shaft, "Break that thing off, but don't pull it out!"

"Uh…"

She could feel it shifting slightly, and screamed, "_Don't move the bottom half, damn it!_"

He seemed to get it, and the _snap_ was drowned out by more gunfire.

A shot from the hypospray, and persuading Vadelar to put a gel pack around the arrow kept it from moving around more.

She stood up and moved toward the opposite side of the crater from where she was shot.

"Keep working on that beacon!" she barked before Vadelar could protest, and went prone on crater lip. She screamed with pain, but gritted her teeth and bore it.

The enemy in plate armor were advancing this time, with bowmen supporting. Bowmen wearing the same uniform as the man she had shot earlier. The killers.

They were trapped. Trapped by the people who had killed Hawkins, and probably had grabbed Zolka.

Monsters. Savages. _Murderers._

They _killed_ Hawkins. They shot down her ship. They were going to kill her. They were going to kill her crew.

Federation instincts, Starfleet training, the Prime Directive, all were buried underneath the emotions that came from failing to protect those one cared about. Empathy and protection drowned out her frontal lobe with the need to escape, to survive, and to protect.

"_Burn! Burn, damn you!_" she roared, and turned the setting all the way up to 16. Maximum power.

Mikins pushed the firing stud, and a whole squad...disappeared. There was simply a red glow, and then...they were gone. They burned away like a magician's flash paper. The ground underneath was scorched and turned to glass. It had been burned down to the topsoil.

The lieutenant's hands shook, and her eyes widened at the sight. Her comrades in the visible light spectrum would only see a glow, but she could see _them_ as they died. For a brief instant, she saw their forms in the glow, saw everything they were being incinerated.

She had just…

Mikins had protected her crew. The enemy slowed at the light show.

That sort of thing drained too much power. Level six would do. It _had_ to.

"What's wrong with them?! Why don't they stop?!" Vadelar demanded, his eyes fixed on adjusting Hawkins' combadge, "Usually the phaser works!"

"I don't give a damn, just get us out of here so we can fry this place!"

The lieutenant's phaser buzzed with a low power alert, and she swapped it for Hawkins'.

"Thanks kid…" Mikins whispered, and switched it to burst fire, a narrow beam setting down to level six.

Troops fell left and right, the lieutenant dodging from either side of the crater despite her injuries. Artillery fire came closer and closer, more and more weapons devoted to their little position.

"Good luck taking me down, _you'll all burn with me_!"

Bullets tore through the air above her, but the lieutenant only screamed louder, her throat going raw, "_I'll take you all on, come and get me you bunch of primitive screwheads!_"

A tank rumbled in the distance, and several shells landed nearby. There were so many coming...

"Vadelar, how's that beacon coming?!"

"Lieutenant-oof!"

She turned back.

The guys in armor had snuck up on her somehow. Several enemy soldiers had Vadelar at sword point, beaten and bruised, with his fists bloody.

"Surrender, Horde witch, or he dies!" one yelled.

Mikins fired without hesitation. The level-six wide-beam stun blast knocked everyone unconscious. She blasted another two parties from each side of the conflict as they crested the crater rim.

Making sure the ensign's face was out of the mud, and not caring less about the other guys, she stuck her head up out of the crater again. A blast from the almost-drained phaser lit another fire around the pit.

The enemy seemed to be holding back for a moment. A moment's reprieve was what she needed.

She tapped her combadge, "Lieutenant Mikins P'noa personal log. Probably my last for a while. My runabout suffered some sort of system crash. We lost contact with the ship, our warp core went offline, so did our shields. We got shot down. Emergency beam-out. I've got one missing, one KIA, one unconscious, I'm myself injured. I'm the only one still standing. I don't think we're going to last the night. If we do, we'll try to make it to the runabout. But at the moment...there's not much we can do."

She considered her weapons beside her, three type-2 phasers and the personal type-1 she kept on her and hadn't used yet. "I might be able to cobble together a few force fields to protect against the shells…"

Sweat poured from her hands, and she was panting harder than usual. "...And against the heat. Damn it."

A gust of wind drew her attention. The guns had reduced somewhat.

The next thing she knew, a bunch of her flames were extinguished, and she was several dozen meters in the air.

Then she was in peaceful unconsciousness.


	7. Chapter 7

"Well, she's not Borg. None of them are. This one is just swarming with nanites!"

Captain Hayes rolled his eyes and threw up his hands as he turned away from the ship's chief medical officer.

Commander Matthias shook his head and gave a hiss. He rubbed his left eye, still bruised and a bit swollen.

Lieutenant Commander Reed took a deep breath, "James, can you please explain what you mean?"

They stood in front of the _Belleau Wood's_ isolation lab window, that separated the unit from the rest of the ship's medical laboratory. It was a mid-sized chamber that combined the two labs to save space. Several staff moved about behind them in the rest of the lab, doing blood work and other jobs needed to treat their sudden influx of patients.

The isolation lab, a small room with windows and an airlock separated it from the rest of the lab, was designed to treat species with foreign atmospheres, specific medical requirements, or in this particular case, treat potential biohazards.

The chamber had its biohazard forcefields online, set to level 10, the highest possible setting. Entrapta was contained inside it.

She sat on the bed, swinging her bootless feet and wringing her bare hands. She studied the medical equipment attached to the sides of the bed. Her hair moved to and fro. She reached up to the sensor cluster on the ceiling and brushed against the field up there.

Two guards stood by the airlock, with armored vests, helmets, and TR-116 caseless projectile rifles instead of phasers.

Two more stood by the main doors of the lab.

The doors opened once in a while, and exposed the interior to a view of the rest of the ship's small sickbay complex. Medical staff moved through the hallway, shuttling supplies and wounded personnel.

The senior officers all stood around the console set against the isolation lab window, confused by their chief medical officer.

"Hm?" The _Belleau Wood's_ chief medical officer asked, looking up from his controls, "She's swarming with nanites, I said. The bloodwork from the rest checks out, there's no nanites in them. She's the only one who has them."

"Dr. McCoy," Hayes said slowly, "how is she not a Borg, then?"

"Well, they're nanites, not nanoprobes," the dark haired Lieutenant Commander James McCoy replied, his New Zealand accent thick and a fascinated smile on his face, "Federation nanites. They have a Starfleet signature."

He pointed at the monitor on the console that displayed an image of a blood sample. There were a few dozen blood cells, as well as several strangely shaped objects. They looked like cartoon spiders, spherical with eight legs, spread out in pairs around the sphere.

The display zoomed in. Various icons and analyses appeared. The computer drew arrows that sprouted analyses and icons. Layers peeled themselves away to reveal circuits, internally stored mechanisms, a power source...

And on the end of one arrow, a Federation insignia sprouted.

"So...she's a...Federation drone then?" Hayes asked slowly, still baffled.

McCoy furrowed his brow, then shook his head with a chuckle, "Oh no, captain. She's a fairly normal human being. So are all the others, or whatever normal they're supposed to be. We checked everything twice, and rechecked. Aside from their abilities, there are no other anomalies. They're as human as you or I. This woman is the only one with nanites."

"Alright then," Hayes groaned, "what does that mean?"

McCoy smiled, ever eager to pass on knowledge, "All You remember the systems administrators, right? The ancestors of these princesses? They each had control devices for their specialties the ones for the terraforming projects, or the prototype weaponry, like the colonel's sword, correct? All of the system administrators had one. Anyone who's close enough to the original owner genetically can use one. Except with her."

He gestured through the window, and Entrapta waved a bit. He waved back, "In princess Entrapta's case, her ancestors were part of the nanite project. She doesn't have a control device, she told me herself, but that's not quite true. She doesn't have one because it's in her blood. She _is_ her control device. She has abilities to match the others, but they manifest differently."

"Which project was this?" Matthias asked.

"The spook said it was the Dwarves Project." McCoy replied.

"So...what? Is her hair made of mithril?" Hayes asked, only half in jest.

"No, but close. They use some sort of carbon nanotube technology to strengthen the hair and use a Borg-based neural interface system to manipulate it. Our technology can't match Borg nanoprobes, so they can't manufacture too much in there, but they can strengthen what already exists. They also enhance her durability, certain brain processes...it actually allows her to speak machine code." he scanned through a readout, fascinated.

"So? Lots of people can code." Hayes said.

Reed tilted her head from side to side, her antenna twitching, "Yes sir, people can code, but speaking directly to the computer with assembler language is insane. We have to use compilers, computer languages that are easier to learn, for us to talk to them. It's possible for a normal person to use assembler language, but it's really, really, _really_ hard. It's like building a house out of toothpicks. You could do it. Theoretically. She doesn't need the translators to make it easier, if I'm understanding it right. She can just...do it."

"So that's why the Borg always smash through our computers? They can sweet-talk the computers?" Hayes grinned a little.

"Yes, unfortunately sir." Reed replied in a deadpan tone. "The boffins must've salvaged something from the early Borg encounters, that explains the resemblance. If they tried to reverse-engineer it, building a whole new operating system would take forever. Why not just edit the old one?"

McCoy continued, "The nanites also give her DNA digital data storage. She can store computer information in her body, and she can recall things a lot easier."

Hayes glanced at Entrapta through the window, "Jeez…I hope they left the kitchen sink out. Supersoldier, hacker, and cure for memory loss? Damn, can _I_ get some?"

At the mention of the word "supersoldier", Matthias looked uncomfortable. "Doctor McCoy, you said there were anomalies in their systems, correct?"

McCoy's smile faded, "Yes, yes I did, commander. The...modifications made to facilitate their abilities."

Normally the medical officer had at least a hint of a smile on his face, as if he always thought of a joke. It felt strange whenever that vanished completely to the opposite side of the spectrum.

Matthias frowned, or the Gorn equivalent, "And…?"

The doctor's face shifted, "yep."

Reed touched the side of her head, "hell."

Hayes groaned, "I was afraid of that. You're positive?"

"Yeah. Their abilities aren't just technological." McCoy said, "There's no doubt about it. These are genetic modifications. Genetic _enhancements_. This isn't for disease, genetic disorders, or anything else. This is straight up illegal genetic _enhancement_."

The others fell silent.

"I think we all knew this was the case." Reed said finally, "how else would they have had those abilities?"

"I can understand why they thought it was magic." Matthias commented.

"I was hoping it was purely technological, like Adora's sword," Hayes said, "That's not genetic engineering, that's temporary mutation or something, right?"

McCoy shrugged, "I'm not entirely positive on that myself. I've been a bit busy," he gestured to the rest of the lab for emphasis, "As far as I can tell, they derive most of their abilities from genetic enhancement. Their 'magic', their control of elements? It's organic technology, real cutting edge stuff. I don't understand it fully myself, but their ancestors were altered to allow them to do the things that they do. It's not cybernetics or anything."

He continued, "Princess Adora's sword is unusual compared to the others, of course. This is mostly technological, temporarily applying enhancements to the wielder. I'm not entirely sure how it works, not without deeper tests, or an actual activation of the device, but it's like they took a bunch of different technologies and threw them into a blender. Some of the files I've got on what this could be even come from _Voyager_. They encountered some aliens that could rapidly mutate someone by manipulating genetic tags. Some of it seems like Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome actually...it's all similar, but what we're dealing with here is far more advanced."

"That doesn't legally count as permanent genetic enhancement, doctor," Reed pointed out.

"I wouldn't have minded a few of those swords in the Corps. One of those can give a single soldier the ability to fire high-energy phaser blasts and tear apart tanks." Hayes commented, "I wonder what vision is like with that sword turned on. We wouldn't need power armor. A soldier could have everything the Augments had, but without the drawbacks or permanency."

Reed shifted in place. Her antenna lowered., "and the rest, sir? The actual genetic enhancements?"

McCoy's earlier jovialness had faded again. "This is going to be a bloody media fiasco."

"Word is going to get out that Starfleet was working on this." Reed said. She frowned, "Command won't be happy with us."

"I'm not happy with command at the moment either." McCoy scowled, "I want to get my hands on those weasels who authorized this stuff. Medical ethics, anyone?"

"What were they trying to do?" Hayes muttered.

"Colonel Sheri said they were trying to bring back all the 'old tricks' from World War III," Matthias said, with a glance at his fellows, "I wonder if this was some sort of attempt to put us on equal footing with the Jem'Hadar."

"It's still genetic engineering, though! What next, _cyberzombies_?"

"Oh, don't even say that!" McCoy exclaimed.

"Why not? Look at this planet and tell me cyberzombies are beyond what they were doing here!"

"Cyberzombies?" Reed asked.

Hayes furrowed his brow at her, "don't you remember your history, Lieutenant Commander?"

The Andorian noticed the captain's hands were fists.

"Nasty things, Reed," McCoy explained with a grimace, "cyborg weapon during World War III."

"That doesn't exactly narrow it down, James. There were a lot of cybernetic weapons."

"Never mind that," Matthias said, "this is going to heavily affect reintegration. How do we tell them they committed the crime of...being born?"

Reed shook her head, "That's not the problem! We know it's not their fault, there's nothing wrong with-"

Hayes tried not to glare at Reed, "Lieutenant Commander, genetically enhanced people aren't allowed to serve in Starfleet, or any branch of the military. They can't hold most jobs. Their rights have been trampled on by those racist laws!"

Reed blinked, "Captain, genetically enhanced people-"

"Need I remind you that _Khan is dead_?" Hayes snarled, "Khan is dead. His people are dead. The Augments are dead. They've been dead for a hundred years! The _Botany Bay _was the last of them! These are a bunch of kids."

Reed narrowed her gaze, "The Augments killed tens of millions of people in the Eugenics Wars. Enhancement was one of the causes of World War III, and that nearly wiped out Earth. Genetically enhanced children _accidentally_, with no intention, or even knowingly, killed the entire crew of the USS _Lantree_, and nearly killed the crew of the _Enterprise-D_. The Dominion fielded nothing but genetically enhanced soldiers if they could help it. This 'kid' -and I'm fairly certain she's at least twenty-two- nearly destroyed our ship, blew a hole in the hull, and we've got two dozen people in sick bay because of her!"

"I'm well aware of the Jem'Hadar. I'm well aware of all of that. But here's the problem. This is a damned racist policy!"

Hayes swept a hand, "most genetically engineered people had no say in the engineering whatsoever! Why are we punishing them for decisions they had nothing to do with? Those are just kids in there! They're terrified of us! They think we're the enemy! They're just kids, Reed! They're just kids!"

"Captain, they're adults by their standards-" Matthias began, and McCoy interrupted.

"Captain, look, I get what you're saying, but the law is the law. We can't change that."

"What law?" Hayes snapped, "you want me to go in there and tell those kids that they have no rights in Federation society, and cripple our negotiation efforts, or lie to them and _ensure_ a political charlie foxtrot? And for what? For a law set down because of a man a hundred years dead who should've been dead _four_ hundred years ago?"

"Captain…" Matthias muttered quietly, and brushed a hand against his arm.

Hayes took a deep breath.

Reed's eyes widened, "captain, you cannot possibly be insinuating that you think genetic engineering is a good idea!"

"I _know _it's not a good idea!" Hayes hissed, "I _hate_ genetic enhancement, at least this kind! Research for improving lives is one thing, but altering people to become... something else, in Khan's way, that's wrong."

Reed blinked, "I'm sorry sir, but I don't see what the problem is, then."

Hayes took a deep breath. "Getting rid of diseases, medical aid, helping people can survive in certain kinds of environments, that's one thing. But mutating yourself for...for... provincial reasons, is something else. But _regardless_ of that, people who are genetically engineered face a lot of social stigma and _institutionalized discrimination_. What _on earth_ do you think those laws are for? I can hate genetic enhancement, but that doesn't mean I hate the victims of it. Those kids can't help who they are. If someone is genetically enhanced as a child, without any say in the matter, so they can't help who they are, what justification is there in taking away _their_ civil rights? They can't help being different! Just because of the actions of some monsters who are dead and gone, they don't deserve any rights?"

He shook his head, "those kids haven't actually done anything! I thought the Federation was supposed to judge on character! They deserve just as many rights as anyone else! This isn't the _Lantree_!"

He glanced at McCoy, "they don't have any diseases, right?"

"Not that I can find."

"So they can control elements and stuff, big deal! What matters is _who _they are, not _what _they are! They didn't have a choice! They didn't ask to be like that, they didn't ask for any of it! I hate genetic engineering, but racism against the victims of it makes me _sick._"

He took another deep breath, "lieutenant commander, can I trust there is none of that here?"

Reed had silently listened to the lecture without any major facial changes beyond some antenna and eye movements.

She didn't answer immediately.

"Captain… you make a good point. I understand what you're saying. But as McCoy pointed out, the law is the law. Even if you convince us, what about Starfleet Command?"

"I don't know," Hayes muttered, catching his breath, "McCoy, what's the rest of their health like?"

McCoy nodded, grateful for the change in subject, "I'm glad you finally let us get a look at them. Even with the biofilters aboard our ships, there's still a risk of disease on both sides. We've got a population that's had a thousand years, vaccines or no vaccines, to develop their own viruses, and us without immunities. And knowing what Intelligence was developing down there? Jesus...I'm glad I could actually get a close look and make _sure_ they're not carrying anything. Remote sensors can never beat blood work."

"You know the rules, McCoy," Hayes grimaced, "Probably better than any of us. We couldn't let you look at them without proper procedure. I don't like it any more myself, but this is a delicate situation. I trust they don't have any bugs though?"

"Nothing I can't deal with. They're all suffering from certain nutritional deficiencies, especially the ice girl, but that's to be expected. It matches some of the problems they had after World War III. Health problems brought on by improper diet, lack of medicine, etc, but nothing unexpected. Princess Adora and the Horde officers are slightly better off, but not by much. And that's not even mentioning the dental problems, eyesight, hearing, and everything that comes without modern technology."

"Do you know what exactly Captain Scorpia is?" Matthias asked, "Was her mom a Tholian or something?"

"Doctor-patient confidentiality, sorry."

"Ah…"

Have you figured out what's wrong with Princess Glimmer?" Hayes asked.

McCoy grimaced, again unusual, "She's burned an awful lot of calories. I think teleportation has something to do with that. I've been a bit swamped so I haven't been able to do much more than get her an IV. Whatever mechanism she uses to teleport doesn't just use a normal human's energy, though. It uses some, burned a heck of a lot of calories, but there's something else. The boy said she regularly has to 'recharge' back in the colony. Our resident spook is real stingy with the information on certain projects. That guy is _dressed_ in red tape. I can't even get the name of the project her ancestors were a part of. I could probably figure out what she needs given time and more resources, but...for the short term, the only way she's gonna get really healthy again is recharging wherever she normally does it. On the planet's surface."

Hayes scratched his chin, "That might be a while, doc. How are the rest of them?"

"Several of them have old injuries that weren't treated properly. Old broken bones that weren't set properly, scars...textbook Leibowitz."

He grinned a little, and they couldn't tell how serious he was, "I've got re-breaking bones to look forward to! As the great Dr. Phlox once said, 'doesn't matter how much _pain _I inflict so long as I don't cause _harm_'."

Hayes nodded, then asked "How are the Horde kids doing?"

"They've been pretty docile, actually. I had to treat Force Captain Catra's hands obviously," McCoy replied, "The damage to her nails was pretty bad. She hasn't maintained very good hygiene for a while, she could've seriously hurt herself. She's alright now."

"Docile?!" Matthias said loudly, then cursed and repeated in a lower voice, "_docile?_ She nearly knocked out one of my teeth!"

"Yeah, she's been quiet," McCoy said, "Captain Scorpia has kept an eye on her."

Reed commented, "They both seem pretty shaken up. What exactly happened on that runabout?"

Neither the captain or the XO answered. They looked at each other for a moment, and Matthias shrugged.

"I don't know if Emerson wants us to talk about it yet. But all I can say is…poor kid." Hayes spared a glance at the lab door, "What did they do to them down there? This place is a nightmare."

"We've only just started to contact them and already we nearly lost the ship," Matthias said.

"Physical injuries aside, mentally they have a lot of problems." McCoy reported, "I won't know the exact details without consulting Emerson, or how deep things go. From what I've gathered so far, they're suffering the problems typical of child soldiers, PTSD, depression, that sort of thing. We'll need counselors, dedicated doctors, and we're going to have to set up a care center down there."

Hayes nodded, "Understood. Did Emerson tell you what we should do in response to their little escape attempt?"

McCoy nodded as well, "he said to give the Horde kids back their suite. Revoke some replicator privileges, but be careful with them. Don't take away any database privileges, we're still breaking them out of their cult mindset."

Hayes grimaced, "copy that. That's what I figured, but it helps to be sure."

"Shouldn't we take additional precautions, captain?" Matthias asked, and touched his jaw.

"They're diplomats, commander, officials from foreign governments," McCoy said, "We don't want to declare war _this_ fast."

"More than that, they're still child soldiers," Hayes said, "it's not healthy for them to be locked up."

The captain turned to the others, "We'll talk to the Rebellion kids and try and figure out how to stop this war. Now that the earth-shattering revelations are out of the way it shouldn't be too difficult."

Reed spoke up, "We've still got our runabout to track down."

"That might prove advantageous," McCoy commented, *you could work with these kids to get our people back, and use that as a springboard to talk to their governments."

Matthias nodded, "I agree. We should also step up investigations of the lunar bases."

"We need to step up investigations. Our spook hasn't told us everything." Hayes muttered, "We need to find out what they're hiding."

Matthias nodded again, "Yes sir, but a higher priority is ending the war. Since most Federation power sources on the planet have been drained, most of the electrical power on the surface comes from wireless power transfer from satellites or moon bases..."

"No offense commander, but I read the report." Hayes replied with a glare.

"You haven't slept much, sir. I figure it's better to err on the side of 'as you know'," Matthias replied, with his grinning leer, "what I mean is, we should try and get control of those facilities. If negotiations don't play out well, we could try withholding juice."

"We'd need to be careful with that plan, captain," Reed said, and looked at Matthias, "I doubt it would work. In fact it _wouldn't_ work on the Horde. They use some solar batteries, but for the most part they use fission, internal combustion, and mostly non Federation power sources, if _you'll_ recall. And the Machu Picchu station needs power to maintain altitude. We _can't_ lose that station."

Matthias grimaced, "nuts. I forgot about that."

"Let's take this step at a time, people," Hayes said, "we haven't even started negotiations yet."

A knock on the lab window made them all jump.

Entrapta stood at the window, still with a little smile on her face. She waved a bit, and her mouth moved, but there was no sound.

"Whoops," McCoy muttered, and tapped a control.

"Speak of the devil…" Matthias murmured.

"Hey, hi! Can you hear me?" Entrapta asked as the speaker suddenly cut in, "Is there something wrong?"

McCoy shook his head, "Oh no, sorry! Nothing's wrong."

He stepped over to the airlock, and hit some controls.

The guards stepped back from the airlock, "Captain?"

"Doc, you sure you want to do that?" Hayes asked carefully.

McCoy nodded as the force field collapsed, and the physical airlock doors folded into the walls, "She doesn't have any bugs, and those nanites aren't contagious. Don't worry, I factored in everything from the flu to the Psi 2000 Virus. She's clean, and been given the proper vaccines. It's perfectly fine."

He gestured for her to come to the door. The woman walked over and followed him out.

"I'm sorry for all this," McCoy said to Entrapta with a kindly smile, "It must be very confusing. But we had to be very careful. You've got a clean bill of health. Just lay off the sweets for a while and eat something green more often, okay? And get a different dentist. Your last one wasn't the best."

Entrapta shook her head, "Oh, I don't have a dentist. I drilled them myself!"

McCoy stared at her. "...oh."

At the doctor's expression, she shrugged, "It didn't seem that difficult at the time. I don't like dentists, and I had all the information!" She winced, "...It was more complex than I anticipated."

"Jesus, I'll bet…is this why you eat tiny food?"

"Huh?" she waved a hand. "No, I just like tiny food. It's so cute!"

"You're _sure _she's harmless?" Hayes interrupted.

"I hope so." McCoy replied, and looked back at the odd engineer, "Are you?"

Entrapta looked at him, "I guess so. What exactly was the purpose of all this? It's extremely perplexing."

She looked around and studied the lab.

She moved to investigate an unoccupied console. "Fascinating! Such advanced equipment! I could spend days just analyzing _this_ equipment!"

McCoy stepped toward her, "Please don't touch that."

"I won't damage it! I don't think…" She looked at him as her hair probed the console.

As she did so, the conversation lurched back on track, "I can understand imprisonment to restrain potential threats and enemy combatants, but you put me in an environmental isolation unit, and took a blood sample. You were threatened by my presence enough to warrant a heavily armed escort, not just for Catra and Scorpia, but for me in particular. You had those field emitters turned up so high I believe they were going to overload." She pointed at the guards, "Unlike most of your guards, these are equipped with projectile-firing caseless battle rifles, depending on your tactical doctrine. Since I don't see any of my friends, and the fact that I believe your ship has only one isolation lab, this isn't standard procedure. What exactly is it about me that you find dangerous?" She glanced around, "...no one's dead, right?"

"No, nobody's dead, fortunately. But ma'am, even if you hadn't hospitalized more than twenty of my crew, we'd be concerned." Hayes said slowly.

"Why? I'm not any good at physical combat, I-"

Several strands of her hair twitched and moved away from the lab console. The guards raised their weapons.

"Your guards are really twitchy, aren't they?"

Reed frowned, then crossed her arms, as if trying to figure out how to phrase a question.

"What was the point of the blood sample?" Entrapta asked, "My blood type is O+, and while I haven't found those tiny machines in anyone else's blood except my family-"

"Tiny machines?" Reed asked, "Princess Entrapta, are you aware of how unusual that is?"

"Oh no! My family has had it forever!" Entrapta said, "It's normal for anyone in my family tree! I'm perfectly aware of how unusual it is!"

"And they are exactly what the blood sample is about," Reed says, "those tiny machines are potentially one of the most dangerous things in this solar system. Are you aware of the concept of nanorobotics?"

Entrapta furrowed her brow, "I've studied papers on the subject, mostly from my grandfather. He thought that the machines in our blood were designed to work as microscopic doctors, capable of repairing our bodies or even enhancing them." She raised a few tendrils of hair, "Considering my physical abilities, he was correct."

Reed nodded, "That's roughly the idea of what nanorobotics are. Clouds of those nanites, those small robots, are designed to perform a wide variety of medical and technical tasks depending on what you need."

Entrapta nodded as well, excited, "Do your people use any? I didn't notice them in wide medical use according to your database, but I got the sense that was extremely limited; not even a civilian database would have that little. I didn't have any time to examine the encrypted portions after I broke through the firewalls, Catra told me to focus on getting off this ship."

"We had to limit your database access for security purposes," Matthias said, "We meant no offense, but we had to be careful."

"That makes sense, I suppose. You don't limit scientific knowledge to your civilian population though, do you? There's nothing is worse than limiting free flow of information. Scientific knowledge can do nothing but improve lives, and exposing as many people as possible to it increases the chance for advancement and change!"

Reed shook her head, "Of course we don't limit it. One of Starfleet's primary purposes is to serve as the Federation's exploratory arm. Scientific study and advancement is a major pillar of our organization. Many of our larger vessels have a dedicated science officer, such as myself."

Entrapta nodded, and her smile widened, "Ah, excellent! I have so many questions! What research have your people put into portals? And do you have medical technology sufficient to treat certain kinds of nervous system failure?"

"Portals? What kind?" Reed asked.

"Ooh, you have _multiple_ kinds?"

"What do you mean nervous system failure?" McCoy asked, "is there someone we should know about?"

Entrapta turned to him, "Hordak suffers from some sort of degenerative disorder related to his status as a clone. We can't tell if it's a problem related to his species biology, if it's a natural genetic trait, or if it's specifically the result of being a clone. He's suffered moments of weakness, his limbs are..." Entrapta thought for a moment, "...they're kind of falling apart. I don't remember the exact terms. Everything below his forearms have been replaced with mechanical substitutes, and he has several life support implants. There's some chemical damage I believe, from these implants, across his torso and limbs. His veins are outlined in grey. As far as we can tell, he has some sort of chronic condition, but we haven't been able to get much more information. He's stubborn when it comes to doctors."

Hayes breathed a small sound of amusement. With these planets he could understand that.

McCoy furrowed his brow, "Hm, I'd need to conduct an examination before I could make a conclusion. Damaged, improperly applied, or poorly designed prosthetics can cause a number of problems, but that sounds like acute blood poisoning."

"I've been able to upgrade his exoskeleton to address some of these problems with some First Ones- Federation tech, but despite my experience with biology, I'm still not a doctor."

McCoy nodded, "Do you know what kind of technology you used? Computer system, power source…?"

"Well, it was a variety of things. Some electromagnetic actuators, batteries, numerous other bits and pieces of equipment- I think I salvaged some parts from an old hospital…" She rubbed her chin, then perked up, "The key component was this one device, it was the computer that held everything together. Sort of a combination of a computer and a power source? I'm not sure what it was actually called. It had its own power supply, but that was supported by the exoskeleton's own power systems…it was sort of a purple diamond-shaped device..."

"Some kind of transtator I bet," McCoy nodded again, "That's good. Pretty simple technology. From the sound of it you also found pieces of servo suits. We use them for people who can't stand on their own. Did you find any drugs, anything to help keep his condition stable?"

"I only had our own medical supplies to work with, mostly antibiotics and intravenous fluids. It's been having an effect but not enough to cure him."

McCoy took out a PADD to make notes, "There's definitely some sort of chronic condition then."

"Princess Entrapta," Reed spoke up, "What do you mean by portals?"

"What do _you_ mean by 'what kind'?" Entrapta asked.

"Well, is it subspace-based, is it transwarp, is it based on a geodesic fold, a graviton catapult, an Iconian gateway, quantum slipstream…?"

Reed trailed off when she noticed Entrapta was writing down everything she said.

The engineer glanced up, and smiled, "I have no idea! But these other concepts are _fascinating_! I have no idea what any of them mean but I intend to find out!"

Reed frowned, "Okay, let's go simply...can you describe your portal machine?"

"Ground-based, it's a square, with a round hole in the center."

"What kind of power does it take?"

"Mini-fusion reactor. We barely managed to get it to work. We had to salvage some Federation technology to build almost all of the portal, but Hordak provided a lot of math and general understanding."

"What are we talking about here, lieutenant commander?" Hayes asked.

"One second, sir. Entrapta, were you able to run the device? Get it online at all, or at least gather some data?"

Entrapta nodded, "Most of my notes on the subject are back at home, but we were able to at least partially power it up. It didn't activate, we didn't have some pieces, but we did pick up some data."

"Any tetryon scans?"

"No...but there are some I remember…"

She wrote down some units and figures, not quite comprehensible to the rest of the crew, and handed it to the science officer.

Reed frowned, "Hm…that salvaged technology, were there any distinct markings?"

"I can't read the First Ones script very well, but I did get some…" she wrote down more on the paper. "Most of it was danger warnings and stuff like that, but I did find this…"

"Project Morse." Reed read the mangled letters.

"Lieutenant commander?" Hayes asked again.

Reed looked at him, "I'm not familiar with it, captain. But the readings she gave me don't indicate an Iconian gateway. They're similar to wormholes, but they're not identical."

"A wormhole generator on a planet's surface? Why wouldn't it be an Iconian gateway?" Matthias asked.

"And we can't even build wormhole generators, let alone Iconian gateways," Hayes pointed out, "are you sure, Reed? How could the Horde build something like that?"

"Technological development isn't a straight line, captain," Reed pointed out, "Numerous historical cultures have invented advanced technologies without the written word, for example. The Horde could have invented wormhole technology before warp drive. I'm guessing Hordak is combining his own technology with some wormhole research that must've been done before the activation of Project Eternia."

Hayes nodded, "Good point. This could be a problem."

"It explains how they got the drop on the garrison here." Matthias pointed out.

"They've got strategic mobility on us. Even if they don't have the power or range of Iconian tech, they can still jump around us."

"Well, that's not exactly new. We've still got the edge on them in firepower." McCoy commented.

"Captain, we need to recover that tech immediately," Reed said, "this was the stuff Colonel Sheri was trying to protect, technology and weapons like this. We _can't_ let it fall into the wrong hands."

Entrapta noticed an odd little visual exchange among the officers, like there was some implied message or subject she didn't know about.

_God I wish reinforcements would get here sooner…_ Hayes thought.

**XXXXX**

Adora rubbed her arm around where they'd drawn blood. She _hated_ blood being drawn, but at least for her, she was familiar with it. The Horde required it for medical examinations. The others had never had it beyond blood transfusions, and were a little more resistant.

"Ow! Jeez! You think you got enough in there?" Mermista asked, and finally wrenched her arm out of a nurse's grip.

"Calm down, miss," the nurse growled. He put the sample aside and grabbed her arm again. He ran a dermal regenerator over the wound before any blood could escape, "It's just a precaution!"

"A precaution against what?" Mermista snarled, "Why do you want our blood?!"

"You shouldn't be touching them," a Starfleet guard said to the nurse, their rifle pointed at the ceiling, "we don't know what kind of-"

"First of all, is that your _medical _opinion, crewman?" the nurse snarled as he swapped his gloves, then gestured to Mermista, "And second of all, do you really think _she's_ assimilated? Out of all of them?"

He gave a sideways glance at the Horde officers a few meters away. Catra sat on one of the biobeds, looking down at her hands with a glazed look in her eyes. Her palms, claws, and fingers were all fully healed, and looked better than they had when she first arrived.

Scorpia hovered nearby, nursing her own healed wound and ready to jump to Catra's defense; she glared around at the two guards who stood watch.

The _Belleau Wood's_ main sickbay was fairly occupied. The half-circle chamber had a dozen biobeds arranged in an arch, six on either side of a central primary surgical bed. The beds were covered in wounded Starfleet sailors, with a handful of walking wounded who stood or sat in chairs. The medical staff moved in and out to with more wounded in or to gather supplies.

The surgical bed was set into its own alcove in the center of the sickbay's back wall, somewhat isolated from the beds on either side. The orange light of the transporter systems glowed in their panels set into the alcove. Two large consoles stood a few meters in front of the bed, each one oriented in positions to monitor either side of the room.

On one of the beds close to the surgical bed lay an unconscious Glimmer, an IV fed into her arm. An exhausted nurse kept Bow from touching the cord or bag, and kept an eye on a number of burn patients.

"What's the point of all this, Adora?" Frosta asked as she rubbed her arm. There was no wound left, but it still hurt.

Adora was a little surprised at the question, and shrugged, "They must be testing our blood. We used to get these every year in the Horde, and vaccines. They wanted to test for diseases, they always said…"

Scorpia clearly had the same thought, and scowled at the nearest nurse, "what are you looking for? None of us are sick!"

"Ma'am, calm down, we just-"

"Where's Entrapta?"

"She's in the iso-lab. It'll be just a few more minutes-"

"_She's_ not sick! Why's she in isolation?"

The nurse rubbed their face, "We're checking all of you in case you're infected with what she's got."

"What does she have?" Scorpia demanded.

"Are you done drawing their blood?" A nearby doctor asked one of the medics, "If you are, get them out of here."

"Thank you sir," a security guard said, and stepped around to corral the group.

Adora shook her head, "We're not moving, we're staying with Glimmer."

The doctor sighed, "You people are in the way and potentially endangering my patients. One or two of you can stay, but we can't have the rest of you standing around. Guards, would you _please_ get rid of them?"

"I'll stay, Adora," Bow said, "You need to talk to the captain."

Adora nodded reluctantly.

"Wait a minute, we need him to understand all the tech stuff!" Frosta said.

"But-"

"You don't need to go far, the captain's just down the hall." a guard said.

Bow looked at Glimmer, then grimaced and stood up, "Alright…"

Scorpia glared around, then nudged Catra, "Hey, we gotta go…"

Catra twitched, glanced up and around, then hopped off the bed. She closed her hands and stuffed them in her pockets.

They were led out into the corridor of the ship's sickbay complex. It was a semi-isolated section of the ship, with two doors on the port and starboard sides that led into a square-shaped corridor. Two hatches forward accessed the medical bay they'd exited, while several others in the square led to surgical suites, ICUs, the isolab, and other medical facilities.

They were just in time to see a stretcher being moved out of a surgical ward with an unconscious Starfleet crewmember.

They looked almost completely healed, despite the serious cases that had been brought in. Federation medicine seemed able to work wonders.

A door opened further down the hall and the _Belleau Wood's_ senior officers emerged, with Entrapta escorted by several guards.

Scorpia immediately rushed over, and skidded to a halt as all the guards raised their weapons, "Hey!"

"Entrapta! Are you okay? Did they hurt you at all?" Scorpia demanded, her tail and claws raised.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Entrapta said with a wave, "They just wanted to test us for nanites!"

"Miss I'm going to need you to step back." a guard said, and stepped between them, "_Again._"

"Nanites?" Scorpia asked in confusion, "What? Why was she in the iso...thing?"

"Why'd you want our blood? What's going on?" Adora demanded, and stepped forward to stand beside Scorpia. She looked at Scorpia, took one step to the right,, then glared at the Starfleet officers.

Dr McCoy smiled, "We aren't trying to hurt you. We were concerned that you were infected with…"

"Nanites," Reed said, then took a deep breath. "Do your people know about blood cells?"

"Yeah…?" Adora said, and made a "come on" hand gesture.

"Imagine a machine so tiny it's the same size as one of those red blood cells."

"Okay…" Adora said, and tilted her head.

Reed pointed at Entrapta, "She's full of them."

Adora looked at Entrapta. She looked back at the science officer. She looked at Entrapta. Back at Reed.

"What?"

"Princess Entrapta has a colony of microscopic automatons in her body that are augmenting her physical and mental abilities, and could be the biggest threat to life in the entire solar system." Matthias explained.

"What?" Adora repeated.

"What?" Bow added, with a furrowed brow.

"'Biggest threat'? How could that be? She wouldn't hurt a fly! I mean...she wouldn't kill anyone here!" Scorpia said, with a nervous chuckle.

"What's so dangerous about little bugs in your blood?" Adora asked.

Matthias and Hayes exchanged a look, and the captain sighed. "This is going to be hard to understand... Doctor McCoy, have they invented fillings yet?"

"We have, dunno if they did." Scorpia said, and gestured at the rebellion staff.

Hayes nodded, and sighed again.

Reed stepped forward, "those little machines can be extremely dangerous. One of the greatest threats to the Federation is an entity known as the Borg, a cybernetic hive mind created from billions of individuals, that seeks out new life to inject it with nanoprobes that look just like hers, in order to assimilate it, in order to make more of themselves. They're more like a plague or natural disaster than anything else. They're monsters, no matter who or what you are they'll try and assimilate you."

The Etherians stared at her.

Entrapta furrowed her brow, perplexed. "A fascinating concept. Tell me more! Do they assimilate through an aerosol deliver mechanism, physical contact, or…?"

Reed nodded, a little surprised, "physical contact, typically. They typically inject the nanoprobes through the neck with a pair of tubes. They ride adrenaline to spread through the body, and one by one convert your cells into new machines, and build them bigger and bigger until most of your body is covered in implants, they control your mind, and your individuality is gone, you become a Borg drone."

The Etherians remained silent. They looked at each other.

"Your friend here," Reed said, gesturing to Entrapta, "infected our ship with...materials that looked like Borg technology. We saw her blood was full of nanoprobes - nanites, and we panicked. One Borg drone is a huge threat."

"One? Really?" Adora asked dubiously.

Reed grimaced, and shook her head slightly, "I will admit it's not as bad as it used to be. We might be able to stop one with our caseless rifles, but a few years ago we wouldn't have been able to stop it. We prefer to not take any chances."

"How would they be such a threat?" Entrapta asked, "your medical and tactical systems could surely keep them far enough away to avoid physical contact! Unless they can transport the nanoprobes through your teleportation technology...wait a moment, what utility is there in simply using the body's resources? There's no enhancement there..."

"Typically they try to surgically alter the assimilated individual as quickly as possible. They add external implants to the structure that already exists." Reed explained, "replacing eyes or limbs with cybernetic versions…"

"Oh, now I get it. You said they were a hive mind correct? They must change each drone to fit according to their needs-"

Hayes grimaced, "they're such a threat because of their technological superiority. You think we're terrifying for that? These guys have ships that dwarf ours in size as well as weapons. One of theirs, _\- one_! - managed to destroy nearly fifty of our ships in a single engagement. And that was when we knew they were coming. They can hack into our ships like Entrapta can, and cripple or destroy them. They're one of the Federation's worst enemies."

He crossed his arms, "so I think we can all excuse a little paranoia and blood work."

Utter silence.

"My word…" Perfuma finally muttered.

"So...little robots turn people into bigger robots? Um...okay…" Mermista said.

Bow shivered, "They can replace limbs?! Why would they do that? How far away are they? They're not coming anytime soon are they?! I don't want to be a Borg!"

Reed's eyes widened a bit, "Calm down, they're not coming any time soon. We're just explaining-"

"It's crazy, Bow!" Frosta exclaimed, "It's all ridiculous! How do they expect us to believe that?"

Hayes scowled, then caught himself, "I can assure you we're telling the truth. Our chief engineer can tell you himself. He was on a ship during our second engagement with the Borg, when they tried to invade Earth. We've barely been able to survive by the skin of our teeth. Last time we tangled with them, we won and they were _not_ happy."

"We're not happy either." Adora said, "We don't have any reason to trust anything you say, except those holograms you showed us. And the only reason we can trust those is because Entrapta said we could. Anyone can pick up old records and show them. Why should we trust you?"

Hayes grimaced, "What would it take for you to believe us? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem like you're doing everything you can to avoid believing what we say."

Adora looked aside for a moment, "Well...we have to be suspicious. We have no idea who we can trust!"

"And how do you know you can trust anyone? We haven't deliberately hurt any of you, have we?"

"You've kept us prisoner." Bow pointed out.

Hayes groaned, and turned away for a moment.

"We studied your activity before we intervened," Matthias said, "We didn't think you would believe us if you weren't… a captive audience. Your planet is extremely hostile, and when a planet is in a civil war, the people on the planet are far less likely to believe we're extraterrestrials. We've had many crews take casualties from this kind of incident. We were playing it safe."

"We still can't trust you." Adora said. She crossed her arms. The rest of her group exchanged looks with each other.

"Entrapta _did_ say though they were telling the truth about the old She-ra." Perfuma pointed out.

The others nodded.

"Adora, maybe we should try listening to them." Bow said.

The young woman scowled and looked off to one side.

"Princess Adora, I know you're apprehensive, but trust me-"

"Trust you?" She snapped, "All I know is a few facts. We don't have any reason to trust you."

"I hate to say it, but neither do we," Scorpia said, "not that I'm taking their side, but you're not exactly on ours, either. You guys have a war with us, not with them."

Hayes grimaced, "it's not a war with _you_, exactly, your nation isn't the same as the Horde we fought. Do you know anything about their homeworld? Did you know anything about their interstellar empire?"

"Well…" Scorpia scratched her head. "No…"

Hayes found he liked the girl for some reason, despite her imposing size. She was timid, or nervous at times, but polite and could stand her ground well enough.

Adora was decidedly not timid, obviously. He wondered what she'd experienced that made her so paranoid. Child soldiers were bad, he knew, but he'd never really come face to face with any before this mission.

Ironically the fact that they were teenagers made it easier to deal with.

"You don't have to trust us," he said, and spread his hands, "and you can say no. What we want is to help your people. We're not out for conquest, we want to help."

He took a deep breath, "Your countries are independent, but your planet used to be one of our colonies, and Hordak led an attack on it recently from our perspective. We're not here to take over, we're here to ensure justice is done, that the fighting stops, and that the humanitarian crisis is taken care of. We're not out to assimilate you to our way of life, we're here to...to help! That's our whole job! Let us help!"

He suppressed a groan. The Etherians weren't buying it. "Can you at least listen to our proposals? What will it take for you to believe us?"

Adora looked at him, studying his expression.

"There's only one person I know for sure who can tell us you are who you say you are…I need to get back to Etheria to find this person."

She hesitated.

"Yes?" Hayes asked politely, "We're perfectly fine with you contacting higher authority. I'd do it myself in your position. Do you need to contact the queen?"

"Adora, we don't have to-" Bow started, but Adora shook her head.

"No, I have to." She looked at Hayes, "She-they're not in Bright Moon. They're somewhere else."

Hayes raised an eyebrow, but nodded, and glanced at Matthias, "Commander, prepare an away team. Princess, if one of your people wouldn't mind going with Lieutenant Commander Reed? We need landing coordinates."

Adora cocked her head, then shook it and waved a hand, "I don't need any help. I can do it alone."

Hayes' eyes widened and he shook his head, "You're not going down there alone."

"I've fought the spiders before, I'll be fine." She said dismissively.

Matthias balked, "spiders?"

Hayes narrowed his gaze, and asked in all seriousness, "Organic or mechanical?"

"Giant robot spiders that shoot webs. They're not too bad." Adora was a little smug at that she got a reaction like this.

"Okay, now there is _no way_ you're going alone. You're too valuable to get eaten alive. I'm going to guess whoever this person you want to talk to is, they're in an old Federation facility?"

At the mention of value, Adora's right hand twitched.

The captain shook his head, "I'm sorry, but this just isn't going to happen without an escort."

"Just because you knew Mara doesn't mean you have any special authority over me! Adora snapped suddenly.

Hayes rocked back in surprise. The other Starfleet officers looked at each other.

"Excuse me?" Hayes asked slowly.

Adora glared at him silently.

Hayes' eyes flicked back and forth, "I... I'm equivalent in rank to her, but that's not what I was saying at all. This is standard procedure in the Federation defense forces."

"I'm She-ra! It's my responsibility and mine alone!"

"Adora…" Bow tried to step forward but she shrugged him off.

"I don't care how much you knew her," Adora barked, "I don't care what you people knew about her! I don't care if she was your CO! You have no authority over me!"

"What if we went with her?" Bow asked, stepping in front of Adora and putting on a weak smile, "would that-?"

"You don't have to come with me, Bow, I've been fine on my own before-" Adora started, and Hayes shook his head.

"No. We can't send any of you down there alone. We can't risk you getting your heads blown off."

Scorpia looked at Catra. The other girl tilted her head.

"You can't tell us what to do!" Adora shouted, "you have no authority-"

"It's not authority over you! Well- not quite, it's to keep people from getting killed. One sniper is all it takes."

"They haven't hit me before…" Adora mumbled.

"Excuse me?" Matthias asked.

"Okay a couple near-misses, but-!"

"Adora please stop!" Bow hissed urgently.

Hayes raised an eyebrow again, then shook his head, "Okay, that's it. We can't let you go alone, we can't risk losing _any_ of you."

"Captain-" Reed spoke up, but Hayes waved her off.

"No. Princess, you need to understand you can't get everything you want. This is final."

The brief silence was interrupted when Catra softly. She touched the top of a fist to her forehead, laughing.

Her snickering turned to snuffling and angry snorts.

"Catra…?" Scorpia asked.

Catra's snuffling vanished, "_I'm fine,_" she hissed, and her snorting went back to laughter.

Hayes eyed the pair, then slowly turned his gaze forward, "... I'm sorry, princess Adora. This is non-negotiable. You _will_ have an escort."

"And there is Federation property down there," he added, "Even without everything with the colonel, and without all the old tech, we wouldn't let _anyone_ down there alone anyway."

Adora glared at him silently.

Hayes looked from her to the other Etherians.

"What about the rest of you?"

"We're following She-ra." Mermista said, and Frosta nodded.

Perfuma scrunched up her face, and looked to the side.

"We're not doing anything without being sure who you are." Adora said.

Hayes scratched his head.

He looked off into the distance. He snapped his fingers, but they didn't make a sound.

He looked at Adora's determined face, at the other kids.

The captain sighed.

"Is this really the only way, Adora?" He asked. His voice was steady, with no hint of condescension or anything Adora might have expected.

Was he really taking her seriously?

She grimaced, and looked to the side. She threw up her hands, "you know what? I have no idea. No one really has any answers. I thought you people might, but you don't. You're just keeping secrets like everyone else. The rebellion keeps secrets, the horde keeps secrets, she does, everyone does. All I can guess is that she might have something. So I need to get down there."

He nodded, "Alright. Negotiations won't begin until your check-in is done," he said, "I'm going to allow this, but you are _not_ going down without an escort, and that's final. Transporters won't work anyway. The only way down is by shuttle. It's not just the risk to major diplomats, we can't let one of those fall into enemy hands. So we have to send a team down _anyway_."

Adora huffed, but finally relented, and crossed her arms, "Only as long as I get my sword back."

Hayes considered it, "It will be carried by a member of the away team."

Adora looked to the side, "Fine."

"Captain, what about Charger 2?" Matthias asked.

Hayes cursed. A second time. Then a short string of colorful language under his breath.

On top of all the injured crew, the hull breach, and a barely functioning cruiser, there was _that_ whole fiasco.

"Lieutenant Commander? Can you get me satellite photos?" he asked.

Reed passed him a PADD.

Hayes said, "Entrapta's computer virus infected not just the ship, but several of the shuttles like the one...we flew in. One of them was in atmosphere monitoring our scouts when they stopped reporting in. It's not a communications glitch, because we found the runabout grounded."

He held out the PADD that showed the coordinates and the photos taken from orbit. He zoomed out a bit to give them some landmarks.

Adora took the PADD, and showed it to the others.

"This is near one of the front lines." Mermista commented.

"Which one?" Perfuma asked.

"I don't remember all of them, we've got dozens, right?"

Frosta stood on her toes, then just grabbed the device. "I know this one."

"The crew's missing, and it looks like they did an emergency beam-out." Reed explained.

"Beam-out?" Bow asked.

"Oh. Transporters."

Perfuma tapped Entrapta's shoulder, "Transporters?"

"Matter-energy converter designed to move a person or object from one place to another," the technician replied, "Similar to Glimmer's teleportation abilities but technological- and much more refined."

"...Oh."

Bow's eyes widened, "You have Glimmer's powers?"

Adora looked alarmed, and tensed up. She had this horrific thought that the reason Glimmer was still out was that they were siphoning her abilities. That didn't make much sense though, even by the standards of Starfleet.

Reed put up her hand, "Not quite. It's our own system. We use computers and scanners, it's not attached to a living person."

The Etherians relaxed. Bow just got more excited.

"You have teleportation powers?" he squeaked.

"We call them transporters. I can discuss them in full with you and princess Entrapta later." Reed said politely.

Mermista frowned, "Wait a minute, if you have Glimmer's sparkle powers...what's the problem?"

"What do you mean?" Hayes asked.

"Couldn't you, I dunno, sparkle them back here or whatever? Just sayin'..."

The Starfleet officers exchanged looks, and grimaces.

Mermista raised an eyebrow, "What? Are yours like hers?"

"Do they have a range limit?" Bow asked, and Entrapta nodded.

"I wasn't able to get such detailed information out of your databases, but I thought they could at least go from low orbit…" she muttered quizzically.

Matthias grimaced, "Unfortunately, our transporters are not functioning properly. Even without Princess Entrapta's virus...ah, something about the planet...adversely affects some of our equipment."

Reed nodded, "For the same reason we can't establish contact with them."

"We hoped you could give us some information on how to find them." Hayes finished.

"If they were around your ship, they would likely be safe. Where is the most probable position they would initiate this procedure?" Frosta asked, her diplomat voice on.

Hayes nodded to Reed. She stepped over and drew a line on one of the PADD's maps, the flight path of the runabout.

"They would have beamed down on flat terrain along this route, so they're probably a few klicks back at least. They wouldn't want to go down in the mountains…"

Frosta's eyes widened. "Oh…"

She pointed at a spot on the map.

Mermista winced, "Yikes."

Adora checked it, "This is even more reason for me to do my mission!"

"What? What is it?" Hayes asked.

Reed looked at the point herself. "Captain, they may have put down in the middle of a battlefield."

"They're either captured by the Horde, captured by our side, or…" Bow trailed off, upset.

Hayes muffled a curse again. "Alright. Lieutenant Commander, would you kindly take our guests to one of our labs, and get them to help out with intel? We need maps, coordinates, the works."

Matthias looked at the guards that surrounded the Horde representatives, "Security, take our other guests back to their quarters and report to Lieutenant Bevin for additional orders."

"Yes sir."

A door opened further down the corridor, and in stepped a dark-skinned woman with short dark hair in a red Starfleet uniform, with a captain's pips on her collar.

"Captain Hayes!" She said, and walked over, "sorry to show up like this, I tried to call ahead but your comms are still screwed up. The transporter operator tried to raise you but... but…" her voice trailed off.

Almost as one, the Etherians passed their gaze from her, to Adora, and back. The current She-ra pointed limply, her jaw hung open.

The female Starfleet captain looked at her.

"_What_?!" Adora shouted. She stepped forward, with an accusing finger, "who are you? What is this?"

The captain looked around in confusion, an eyebrow raised, "Hayes…?" She asked, and looked at the other captain.

"What is going on?" Adora demanded. She held her head with both hands, then pointed at the Starfleet captain, "_she _is supposed to be dead!"

"Who are you?" Perfuma demanded, and stepped up as well, "why do you look like She-ra - uh, Mara Sheri?"

The captain blinked in surprise, "Um...I'm her sister. Captain Maxine Sheri, Federation starship USS _Havoc_. Who might you be?"

She could guess pretty well, but regardless extended a hand to Perfuma, who peered at it with confusion for several seconds.

Eventually, she took it, a bit unsure of what to do with it, "I...I... I'm Princess Perfuma...of Plumeria…"

Sheri smiled a little, and shook Perfuma's hand, "Nice to meet you."

"...you...you were her sister?"

"Yes...is there a problem?"

"No! None at all! Uh…"

Adora approached cautiously, "Um...hi, I'm Adora, current wielder of the sword of She-ra...are you… did you ever hold the role?"

"What? Uh...no. What are you talking about?"

"The sword of She-ra, her runestone," Adora said as she took in Captain Sheri, "...you look so much like her!"

"I get that a lot. Well, kind of. How do you know my sister?"

Sheri looked at Hayes. He looked up at the ceiling with an odd expression, "Oh no... Hayes, what happened? What did she do? Why are they looking at me like I'm the second coming?"

"More like the third." Hayes said, and tried to hide a smile, "the colonel…"

"Oh god…" Sheri moaned, "I repeat, what did 'the colonel' do?"

The Etherians stared at Sheri, and exchanged looks with one another.

Adora had a look of utter shock and confusion.

She only grew more confused when Sheri suddenly did a double-take at her, looked her straight in the eyes, and tilted her head.

The captain shook her head, "What is going on here, Hayes? What did Mara do this time? I swear to god I'm gonna find her _skull_ if I have to so I can smack some sense into her!"

Adora's eyes widened and she leaned back a bit. Perfuma gasped. All became even more befuddled.

Hayes groaned, and hissed "You read the briefing right? About She-ra worship?"

"Yeah…?"

"She was the original She-ra!" Perfuma said loudly, and pointed at Sheri, "she's her sister!"

Sheri stared for a moment.

The captain then groaned, and facepalmed.

"Dead four years and she still makes me want to strangle her sometimes!"

The Etherians' jaws hit the floor.

Adora was no less taken aback. Mixed feelings ran through her mind. It was like Mara had walked out of that holodeck. Yet not only was she a different person, she didn't treat Mara with any of the reverence the people of the Rebellion would have.

Frankly she sounded a bit like how she herself once thought of Catra...

"Lady Sheri…" Perfuma said, and broke Adora out of her internal monologue.

The captain chuckled a little. "It's 'Captain Sheri', ma'am."

"Captain Sheri…I...I..."

Adora tore her gaze from Sheri, "Perfuma, you alright?"

Perfuma nodded rapidly, "I...uh…"

She looked up at Captain Sheri. She was just a normal human, in one of _their_ uniforms…

Just a normal human.

"Excuse me…" she muttered, and withdrew to the rest of the group.

Hayes looked after Perfuma in confusion, "We'd better adjourn this meeting for now. Commander Matthias?"

The Gorn nodded.

The rest of the group went out, still gazing at the captain as they passed.

She smiled nervously, "Nice...to...meet you all?"

The door shut behind them. Adora looked at the deck plating as she walked. She passed over some soot from a panel that exploded. That woman sounded just like Mara. She was so similar and yet there was something off.

The body language was different from the recordings.

Maybe they were twins.

What did this mean?

The creators of the sword didn't treat Mara's family as royalty. She was treated like any other officer.

She wore the same insignia, she talked to the captain…

Her mind rushed with a million questions and none at the same time. She couldn't think properly, she was just locked up, she just kept walking.

Adora felt Bow's hand on her shoulder, and he spoke as if from the end of a long tunnel.

"...are you okay?" He repeated.

"Yeah," she said sharply, "I'm fine."

Meanwhile, the captains watched the doors close, and immediately turned to look at each other.

Sheri raised an eyebrow.

Hayes' eyes narrowed, and he jerked his head in the direction of the other doors.

With a confused glance at Matthias, both Sheri and the Gorn followed.

They exited via the sickbay complex's portside door, and headed for the nearest turbolift.

The air in the corridor stank. The air scrubbers were still malfunctioning. The stench of the replicator complex wafted from just around the corner.

"How are the analog systems doing?" Hayes growled.

"The stocks of non-replicated food turned out alright. We checked them twice." Matthias coughed at the smell.

"Do we still have water?"

"Yes sir. The water tankage wasn't hit, so the emergency water reclamation system has plenty to work with. Life support is mostly functional, but we've got a laundry list of other problems."

Matthias eyed Hayes, "I'll send you the list when I get a chance."

They passed blown out relays and scars being repaired by the crew, or autonomous drones. The little white machines couldn't do major repairs, but they did their best to clear the scuffs, chips, and bloodstains off the interior of the ship.

They found an operational elevator, and the captains boarded, but Matthias halted. He grimaced, "I'll get the next one. You two talk whatever it is out. I've got duties anyway."

The doors shut, and Matthias hesitated for a moment. He turned and walked down the hall.

As the commander walked, he took out a personal device and sent a text message to the communications department to request an update on a planned meeting. That was half the reason Captain Sheri was aboard.

They had to have a task force conference to discuss their next course of action, especially with the damage to the _Belleau Wood_.

"Norge _and _Matchless _ETA 20 minutes: all other command personnel ready._"

Matthias could guess what the skipper had to talk over with Captain Sheri.

Hayes and Matthias were old friends. They'd known each other for, what, ten, fifteen years? Since Starfleet Academy.

Hayes had known Mara's family for nearly twenty.

Their old group had always been inclusive but Matthias had strange feelings of isolation with them.

Ever since the war that feeling was a bit stronger. Every time one of the old group came around. Those few who remained.

But what can anyone say will happen when your circle of friends gets cut into thirds; the scarred, the missing, and the dead?

The Gorn pushed the elevator call button.

Matthis hadn't lost any siblings, but he lost a lot of friends.

He'd ridden shotgun on the _Evans_ during Operation Return, and seen new stars briefly materialize on visual scanners.

_So many stars…_

The turbolift arrived, and there was an enlisted rating inside, dressed in an operations uniform. He was young, and lacked scars.

"Sir!" he snapped to attention, and saluted.

The Gorn opened his mouth to rebuke the sailor, but hesitated.

He returned the salute, and hissed in his scratchy voice, "At ease. How are you...Torpedo Technician? I'm sorry, I forgot your name."

The young rating was taken aback. Most officers didn't even remember what color enlisted wore. "Torpedo Technician Gniewek, sir."

"Ah, thank you. You work in torpedo bank alpha, correct?"

"Ah...yes sir!"

"You and your people do good work down there. Keep it up. You never know when we'll need local control."

"T-Thank you sir."

Matthias smiled. It looked like the technician couldn't decide whether to be intimidated, charmed, or perhaps most importantly, be sick at the prospect of talking to a senior officer.

"You're new here, correct?"

"Yes sir. Well, sort of…"

Matthias smiled, "Technician, I know it may have been different on your old ship, but here the officer salutes first. It's the officer's prerogative to salute as they see fit. If the officer doesn't salute, you don't, and if they do, you salute. I'm guessing your previous commander was one of the older types?"

The enlisted rating went white, "Uh...uh...yes sir, sorry sir! I...I got confused, and I thought...well, with the captain's background, marine enlisted usually salute first, and I know-"

Matthias nodded, "It's understandable. It's still a new tradition. Just get it right next time, sailor."

"Y-yes sir."

There was a long moment of silence.

Matthias furrowed his brow, "When'd you enlist?"

"Oh...just at the end of the war, sir."

Matthias nodded, "So, just a few years."

_Fifteen years…_

"Yes sir."

The lift finally halted at Matthias' deck, "Carry on, technician. And remember how to salute."

"Sir!"

Matthias stepped out of the turbolift, checking his watch. Starfleet hadn't saluted in years, but with its return to its more marshal roots thanks to the war, they'd reimplemented it. He didn't know exactly why, only that there was a mental discipline component to it. It was the same reason why they still marched in squares despite it being a beyond-obsolete military formation.

The commander sighed. When he'd enlisted the Cardassian War had wrapped up and things looked hopeful. The Borg threat was dangerous, but distant, and they'd beaten them once, despite the atrocious losses in lives and material. Starfleet's PR department had a tough time with that one. But they managed it.

He wondered what the next threat would be. It kept him up at night.

Where would that kid end up a year from now? Dead, or worse? Assimilated? Enslaved?

Matthias saw what the last few wars had done to him and his friends.

He noted the plural.

Gniewek was just five years older than those kids a few decks down.

His heart ached at the memory of their faces. A bunch of kids in a burned out colony fighting a war before they could even drive.

Matthias paused, and closed his eyes. What kind of universe had they just come into?

Matthias shuddered. Where would _they_ end up in the next year? A Borg maturation chamber? A shallow grave?

What were they going to do about this whole thing?

He kept walking.

_Fifteen years._

What did he have to show for it?

What was he still doing here?

A bunch of child soldiers, a monarchy, a colony lost through some dangerous technology, Borg tech, genetic engineering, apparent superpowers…

_What the hell am I doing?_

**XXXXX**

As the doors closed on the captains' turbolift, Hayes turned to cross his arms at Captain Sheri.

Sheri scratched the back of her head, running a hand through her short hair, giving him a sidelong look. "So...I take it Mara built herself a little cult?"

She grimaced, and looked away, "God, the things she did…did you see the way they looked at me?"

"I did. And I have a lot of questions," Hayes glared, "Max, did you have any idea what the colonel was _doing_?!"

"What?"

"Why the hell didn't anyone tell me Light Hope, Mara's freaking _wife_, was a damn colonial _governor_? Why didn't anyone tell me the colonel was married to the governor of the colony she was stationed on?"

For a moment, there was no sound but the ambient humming of the turbolift.

"You didn't know that?" Sheri raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, I knew she was a colonial governor, but...not that she and the colonel were serving on the same planet! That's utterly _nuts_!"

He rubbed his face, "Colonel Sheri was married to Light Hope, the governor of the planet she was assigned to garrison. That's nuts…"

He repeated it as if to confirm it to himself.

Max rolled her eyes, "Well, I don't know how you missed it. Maybe she was gonna tell you herself because she knew you'd freak out like you are now! And when she was dead there wasn't exactly much point!"

"That isn't even what I'm angry about! She wasn't just the garrison commander sleeping with the governor, she was also the project head and _lead test subject_ for Project Recharge! Did _you_ know about that, too?!"

"Archer, I-" Sheri froze, then tilted her head slightly like it was a clock. Her jaw opened and closed for a moment. "What…"

Sheri held the bridge of her nose, and held out one hand with index finger extended, "I have to use one of my angry words. Captain Hayes, might I ask, what the _fuck_ did you just say?"

Hayes blinked, surprised, then glared again, "Your sister was testing experimental biological technology on herself!"

"What the hell? You mean to tell me Mara was...was...guh!" She turned around and grabbed her skull, "What was she _thinking_?"

"That's what I'm asking you, Max! The colonel was crazy, but she was never _stupid_! That stuff could've killed her! What was she thinking?!"

The junior captain threw up her shoulders, "She...god, that's insane! She had a wife, she had us, she had _me_, she had our _parents_, she had...well, you know!

The elevator stopped, and they walked out onto the bridge.

Lieutenant Bevin was the command duty officer monitoring the bridge, and looked up expectantly.

Hayes made a small hand gesture and she went back to work.

The two captains walked into the conference room and locked it. It had gone unscathed. There were no windows, unlike older Starfleet vessels, but there were monitors on the opposite wall, in addition to those on either side of the room. Like most screens, they had depth, allowing one the illusion of windows. They currently displayed the ship's forward visual sensors. Etheria hovered to port.

Sheri listened for a moment, making sure no one could hear her.

She hissed, "I know she wanted to get back in the fight, but...not this badly! I didn't know she was this bad!"

She walked to the other side of the conference room table, and paced back and forth, shaking her head, "What was she _thinking_? I told her...she _knew_…god, what was _wrong_ with her?"

She shook her head harder, running a hand through her short ragged hair, "Damn it, Mara. _Damn it_…"

Hayes' anger had changed, sympathy now rising. She really hadn't known.

"Max, I'm sorry."

He shrugged, "I'm projecting a bit, that purple-haired techie broke my ship."

"No, no, I get it."

She looked out the window monitors. EVA engineers were hard at work patching the hull breach on the dorsal phaser array. "It's a miracle nobody was killed."

"Apparently she did her best to avoid it."

"That's real considerate." Sheri growled.

After a long moment she turned away, and exhaled sharply, "...Project head _and_ a damned lab rat? I thought Mara was smarter than that."

Sheri crossed her arms, looking down at the floor, "I knew she was working on something secret, but...this is nuts."

Hayes crossed his arms as well, a concerned look on his face, "You think maybe that's what made her activate the bubble? Those experiments may have messed with her head."

"I wouldn't be surprised...though, she was working off very little information..."

She turned toward the window, looking at the planet below, and was silent for a long time. Hayes stood beside her, idly scratching his nose.

"The investigative determined that Mara wasn't..._exactly_ at fault, and 'pending any further evidence', she wasn't guilty, but she _was_ emotionally compromised and should not have made the decision she did."

Hayes frowned, "That's an...odd choice. Would've thought they'd have come down harder."

"Yeah. They didn't even tell us all the details until after the war. They didn't give much of anything even for our families. Just that they were MIA in the defense of a colony that was destroyed."

Hayes shook his head grimly, "Official records didn't even give us that much. All they said was they were MIA. No location, no details, nothing. Just 'in the line of duty'."

"It's the 24th century, this isn't the Cold War! How could Starfleet, hell, the Federation do this to us?" Sheri asked.

"The Dominion changed everything…" Hayes muttered.

Sheri nodded, and they fell silent again.

"Believe it or not I'm not exactly surprised at the cult thing. More just shocked. She's done stuff like this since we were kids. You remember when she lost her hand? I walk into the hospital wing, she grins at me and says 'at least it wasn't the weedwacker'!"

Hayes looked at her.

"You don't want to know," she said, holding up a hand, "I had to drag her out of more messes than I can count when we were kids. When she joined the Marines it felt like she was specifically trying to drive me nuts."

"Yeah, I remember both of you talking about that. She was just as nuts in the corps as out," Hayes smiled a little, "and I remember those stories you told that made her blush. No one could make the colonel fidget like you could. Must've been tough being the little sister having to keep her big sister out of trouble."

"Okay, we were fraternal twins, only _technically_ youngest, and second of all, she defended me a couple times. Few broken noses if I was upset." Sheri smiled, "wasn't _all_ me dealing with her. Not _all_."

After a long time, she glanced at Hayes out of the corner of her eye, and gave a little chuckle, "Archer, you don't have to keep calling her 'the colonel'. As her sister, I gave you my permission. Several times. And we _all_ know you were crushing after her."

"I was _not_! And she was gay anyway!"

"So? Not like you haven't slept with your superiors before, _Kirk_!"

Hayes shook his head, his cheeks reddening slightly, "I knew Akdaro since high school! That doesn't count!"

"Yeah, but the way you followed Mara around..." Sheri smiled out of the corner of her mouth, bouncing her eyebrows once or twice.

"Max, I could throw you out this window and tell everyone it was a hull breach."

"Aw, you wouldn't do that…" Sheri chuckled, pushing his shoulder a bit.

Hayes pushed her back, finally smiling a little, "Would I?"

"Nah, you'd get lonely without me to kick your butt."

Hayes laughed, "It would get me a few minutes of peace!"

"Even if you did, I'd haunt you!"

There was a chime at the door. Hayes went to open it, and Matthias was standing there.

"Sir, ma'am, everything's set up."

Hayes nodded, "Thank you, commander. Any other updates?"

"Nothing worth mentioning, sir."

Hayes nodded again, "Good."

Shutting the door, he set the privacy setting again, and went to the head of the conference table, and hit a few controls. Captain Sheri sat beside him.

The visual feed from the window monitors faded out, the beams separating them vanished, and the entire display became one single monitor.

It split into five different windows, each displaying a Starfleet officer in similar conference rooms.

"_Commodore, Captain._" a human nodded from a small conference room.

"_Captain Hayes, Captain Sheri_." a Denobulan said from a larger room.

"_Good day, Commodore Hayes_," a Vulcan acknowledged.

"_Captains._" nodded an Andorian.

A figure much like a four-foot praying mantis, but with hands, made a gesture of greeting, "_Greetings all. Captains, Commodore._" the Thranx's conference room was the same as the Denobulan's, but the lights were darker.

"Commander, Commander, Commander, Captain." Hayes nodded in acknowledgement with each one, "the _Belleau Wood _is back in business. We should have systems repaired within a few days."

"_That's great. What's our next step?_" the human asked.

"The leader of the Etherian rebel representatives doesn't want to open negotiations until she can verify we are who we say we are." Hayes said, "she wants to speak with someone located in one of the old facilities who she insists is the only one who can. The other representatives won't play ball until Princess Adora says so."

"_Which facility is it?_" Commander Yelauna, the Denobulan, asked.

"My staff are working to get the details, but from what I heard, it's one with some active defenses. She described arachnid bot units, though I'm not sure if they're civilian or military."

"_Are we going to allow her down to the surface?_" the Vulcan asked.

"Yes, Commander Onur. It was difficult but I personally had to persuade her to take a security escort. It seems these people, or at least this individual, are used to doing things alone."

Hayes smiled a little ironically, "She's quite stubborn, actually."

The human captain growled, "_Why are we listening to her? She's holding up negotiations just to talk to some witch doctor squatting in one of our bases._ _We don't need them. Let's just go down there and talk some sense into them._"

Hayes looked at the man coldly, "Commander Shirazi, just because the Prime Directive doesn't apply in this situation doesn't mean these people don't deserve the bare minimum of respect. Nor does it mean we throw the book out."

"_With all due respect, captain, you almost lost your ship because of these people. The Prime Directive doesn't apply, and that should mean we shouldn't have to tip-toe around!_"

"_So we should just ignore their rights? They're Federation citizens, Shirazi!_" the andorian snapped.

"_Sh'Rohr, they're Federation citizens who don't even know they're citizens. They use child soldiers, monarchies, and work for the enemy. Speaking softly and carrying a soft stick isn't a good strategy, you know."_

"_We don't have any experience in this area. Few if any of us have trained for this sort of diplomacy. We can do less advanced societies, we can do devastated Federation colonies, but even the _Enterprise _doesn't deal with a combination of them."_ Commander Onur pointed out.

"We're treading new ground here," Sheri said, "but we're not throwing the rulebook out. We have to be careful."

All eyes turned toward her, and for a brief moment, something was wrong. Even Onur had an odd expression on their face.

Hayes nodded, "so the Prime Directive doesn't apply. But we have diplomatic procedure."

"_Those procedures nearly crippled a heavy cruiser, and negotiations have completely stalled. We have the system administrators in custody, let's just go down there and talk to their leaders personally._" Shirazi spoke like it was easy.

"_Are you nuts? They're going to open fire at the sight of a combadge!_" Commander Sh'Rohr snapped, facepalming.

"_Bullets don't work very well on energy shields. We blanket an LZ with long-range phaser fire set to stun, then move in._"

"_Wow, that doesn't sound like it'll end poorly._" Sh'Rohr snarled.

"Even if that wasn't unwise, we can't just storm the planet," Hayes said.

"_Why not?_"

Tension faded, and they all looked at the Thranx. She put her hands together, her antenna twitching.

"Captain Fel?" Hayes asked, nodding.

Captain Felmirnizex, or Fel as was her personal name, was one of the most senior officers in the _Belleau Wood's_ flotilla.

"_Excuse me for interrupting_," she chittered, "_I'm not advocating for anything as of yet, but I've noted this since the start of the operation. We're exploring unknown tunnels, we know that. The Prime Directive doesn't apply, we know that. I'm honestly wondering, why are we scuttling around?_"

She looked at the others, her large compound eyes somewhat frightening to the uninitiated, but they weren't quite the same as terrestrial insects. That helped some.

"_Commander Sh'Rohr, you said it yourself, they _are _Federation citizens. Regardless of whether or not they know it, we have more freedom than if this were an alien world._"

The others nodded.

"_What is stopping us from defending our people as is our right against a hostile threat, liberating them from their captors, and restoring the legitimate colonial administration?_"

The captains all started talking at once.

"Order, everyone!" Hayes said loudly, "Captain Fel, we can't do that."

"_Why not, sir?_" Shirazi asked, "_why not?_"

"We can't."

Fel looked apologetic, "_Captain, with all due respect, I understand your feelings, but I believe it would be wrong to _not _intervene._"

She made a gesture of anger and sadness, "_I believe in the Prime Directive, but it is frequently limiting, and we have an opportunity here. I _cannot _stand idly by and watch _children _subjected to such abuse. I am all for following regulations, but…_"

Her mandibles twitched, "_even I wish to obliterate those...those _monsters_. They must be brought to justice. They torture children, captain. They _must _be brought to justice._"

Hayes frowned.

"_We don't need to acquiesce to these bastards_," Shirazi said, "_we call in the Marines, and bust some heads!_"

"We can't do that." Hayes repeated.

"_Why not_?"

"_You know very well why, Shirazi._" Sh'Rohr snapped, "_Starfleet is not in the habit of storming_-"

"_Just because they were out of contact for a while that means they're not our people anymore? They're not aliens down there, those are our people! We have to help them._" Yelauna said.

Sheri grimaced. She was undecided.

Fel, Yelauna and Shirazi were for direct action, while Onur, Sh'Rohr, and Hayes were for...well, something else.

They were split.

And Hayes didn't know which to pick.

Because as obnoxious as Shirazi was, he had a point.

And Fel _certainly_ had a point. If a Thranx was not just angry, but _furious, _there was a reason.

They loved their kids, and had never used child soldiers beyond ancient history.

_Oh god, when Hivehome hears about this…when _Earth _hears about this..._

Hayes grimaced, "we can't do anything without the Marines. Until they get here, we can't do storming of any kind."

_"We can get started. Sabotage work could completely cripple the Horde's ability to fight back._" Shirazi said.

"_If we jam their radios that could cripple their offensive maneuvers, and prevent any further bloodshed._" Fel suggested.

"_That would only have so much of an effect. They have not developed very sophisticated electronic communications. They could still communicate via courier and signal lights. It is likely they are prepared for such eventualities._" Onur pointed out.

"And we might only make it worse, because you _know_ they'll just blame each other," Sheri pointed out, "they might have anything from nukes made of bailing wire and duct tape, or photon bursts from the armories. We could be seeing mushroom clouds in twenty minutes."

There were more odd looks at Sheri.

"_A bombardment could prevent all of these problems._" Shirazi murmured.

Hayes crossed his arms, and listened for a moment longer.

"Okay, now that we've all expressed our opinions...for now, we're going to play it by the book. Until reinforcements arrive, we are to negotiate, and to make any and all attempts to limit bloodshed. And for now, this means acquiescing to Princess Adora's demands."

"_Princesses…_" Shriazi muttered, "_monarchies…_"

"Regardless of our personal feelings in the matter, we're going to do this by the book," Hayes said loudly, "do I make myself clear?"

"_Yes sir."_ Came a chorus of responses.

He nodded, "now then…"

The meeting would be a long one.


End file.
